Bartzokas: “Condolences for Tima – The match against Virtus is of great importance”

His sadness for her loss of Giannis Tima expressed the George Bartzokas at his media day Olympiakou ahead of Wednesday’s match against Virtus Bologna at SEF (21:15). “I also want to express my sadness personally. We hadn’t worked together, but I knew him well, we had a good relationship. We are all very sad. We are talking about a new man. As the club said, our condolences and support to his family. In memory of Yannis“, he emphasized.

Regarding tomorrow’s game which is now under the direction of Dusko Ivanovic, he commented: “A change of manager gives a new impetus to a team. A team that had lost too many games due to circumstances, like with Panathinaikos, who were ahead of the score and lost the game in one possession. There is no doubt that they are a very experienced team, with talent and ability. Usually the change of coach brings the mood for change and sometimes it also brings luck. They won the match in Vitoria with “four points” at the end. Of course, he also won Milan for the championship relatively comfortably, outside and we have to realize that it is a game for us in a timing after 2 defeats. At a time when we generally had a lot of ins and outs in our team. 2 of our 3 tall ones were left out. We were forced and went into unacceptable shapes. At the same time two of our important players – Vezenkov and Fournier – suffered from a virus. These in a heavy schedule affect the performance of a team and certainly the results because it is different to play one match a week and different three, with these conditions. Thus the game with Virtus becomes more important than it already had. We have to prepare for a game that will be difficult, but also very important for us».

Regarding the team’s absences, the coach stated that “Fal did individual training yesterday and will be participating in team training as usual with us today, so 99% he will be on the mission tomorrow. Fournier and Vezenkov are better, it was also seen in the game with Panionios, and the new player (s.s. Mensah) I hope he will be here at the end of the week, but you know, due to paperwork there is no exact update».