Bartzokas: «We’ll do everything to qualify»
Olympiacos delegation left on Holy Monday morning (14/4) to Madrid where on H. Tuesday and H. Thursday will be playing against Real Madrid for the first two games of the Euroleague play-offs. Giorgos Bartzokas and Vassilis Spanoulis spoke about the upcoming games against the Spanish team and pointed out that the Back2Back European Champions are going to give all they’ve got to qualify.
Giorgos Bartzokas was originally asked about Real Madrid been defeated in Kaunas. “I’m not sure it was a choice. Some say it was and I don’t really care about it. If it was, it was their right to do so. But I really don’t care about it at all, since CSKA Moscow is also a very good team. Real Madrid hasn’t been winning by 20 point margins like they used to. Of course, according to the results, they are the best team right now in Europe. We are not going to Madrid to get a victory, but to qualify. This series of games is not going to be easy on anyone”.
Next, the Back2Back European Champions’ coach was asked about the shape his team is in: “We are in a really good shape for about 20 days now. The players are really focused and in shape. Re-modeling has stopped and this has resulted in four consecutive victories we made to qualify to the next Euroleague stage. It now remains to see where Perperoglou and Printezis stand. Nevertheless, I feel the team is in a good shape. Just like we should have been at this point in the season”.
The Greek coach was asked about how he plans to stop the Madrid team and stressed that “one cannot pre-determine the way you are going to face your opponent”.
About Sergio Rodriguez’ performance, the Greek coach answered that “he’s a player who runs the team. Real of course has quite a homogeny, since many of its players have been working together for many years and they have simply added some tall guys to their roster, Bourousis being one of them”.
VASSILIS SPANOULIS: “They are two play-offs games. We know who we are up against. We are going to play two hard games and bring the series back to Greece to fight for our qualification to the Final Four”.
The Olympiacos captain was asked about the loss Real Madrid suffered in Kaunas. “We are going after the victory in every game. We don’t care if an opponent chooses to lose so as to face us. This is their problem. We now need to be mentally focused. We have done all that could have been done in terms of physical preparation. What we want is to fight to win in Madrid. If we allow Real to run the fast breaks, then we are in trouble”.
Finally, the captain of our team answered a question in regard to the importance of the victory against Panathinaikos, as well as about the way it came. “Each victory in a derby against a great team is important. We are going to fight for the victory in the play-offs as well”.