Bartzokas: «It was an amazing night»
The coach of the ‘red & whites’, Giorgos Bartzokas, talked about the amazing atmosphere created by the Olympiacos’ fans, during his statements in regard to the win over Barcelona.
“Congratulations to the team, the players and the fans. It was once again an amazing night here at the SEF, regardless of the result, that of course makes us happy. We think that following the heavy loss in Milan, we had to recover and play against one of the most difficult teams one has to face. We controlled our emotions, went for one possession at a time. We did not start well. We were nervous, missed free throws, open shots and made some hasty decisions. We upped the levels of our energy in defense in the second quarter and closed the first half leading by two. We then protected our post, where Barcelona is very good when attacking with tall forwards and centers. Our defense was solid. Good luck to Barcelona”.
He then referred to the tragic accident at Tempi. “I would like to express our team’s sorrow for what happened. It was really hard to play in Milan and in Rhodes, but, I did not want to say so, so that it would not look like an excuse. There is no-one in Greece that was not impacted by what happened and is not mourning for it. I cannot send condolences nor dedicate anything. A win or a loss in sports are not something serious. I want to express the sorrow, the pain and the sadness we are feeling for what happened in our country”.
On his part, the coach of the Spanish team, Sarunas Jasikevicius, pointed out the following: “Congratulations to Olympiacos for the win. It was a very interesting game. If you look at the stats, the only difference is with the three-pointers. I think that we missed a lot of open shots and that Olympiacos succeeded in staying in the game in the first half thanks to offensive rebounds. In these games, there are moments when you have to take a strike at your opponent at the right time. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to do that. Olympiacos scored in crucial moments, each time we were getting close. The game was decided by details”.