At the same time, the coach of Piraeus emphasized that the “red and white” are privileged to now have the opportunity to play two matches at home, as the “blaugrana” were in the first two games of the series. Finally, the experienced technician said that he will have Kostas Papanikolaou at his disposal, while he described the matches with Barcelona as “a reward for all the great victories we achieved during the year”.
“Petrushev is fine, he trained normally. Papanikolaou had his first training session with the team yesterday. He seems to be a little short of strength, obviously he won’t need to play 30 minutes. He will definitely be present and I believe he will help,” said Bartzokas, referring to the playing condition of his players, and continued, talking about the first two matches with Barcelona:
“The mistakes are related to quality execution and we saw what we need to improve. Rebounds are purely a matter of physicality. Anyone who goes and gets rebounds through three people is a matter of readiness, mood, will. We have to be in good shape physically, but also mentally, these balls are to be taken by us. I remind you that we won in a venue that Barcelona rarely loses. We were winning the whole match, we were controlling it, we could have won more easily. In the second match of course we wanted to win, we tried our best, but we didn’t have the same intensity in the decisions in our game compared to the first match”.
Regarding the fact that Olympiacos will play the next two matches against Barcelona at home, he said: “I think you play in your environment and feel comfortable with the team’s fans. Of course it is important and we are privileged to have it. As Barcelona was privileged to have it in the previous two matches. In fact, why are the teams fighting for 34 games? To get home field advantage if they make the playoffs. We somehow got it back now. We haven’t had that since our regular season effort, so that means we’ve got the series where we ideally wanted it to be. We have the opportunity not to see a series of games, not to see both, not to see only tomorrow’s game and to be ready to fight for every possession, to be solid as always defensively and offensively and to stay in the plan”.
Speaking about the importance of the many options in the roster he pointed out: “Always a bigger roster has more energy, because you have more players to put. Less exhaustion, but I always repeat the mind is stronger than the body. If the mind is ready, the body leads too.”
Referring to the third match with the “Blaugrana” he underlined: “I also told the players that it is not a simple match. These games aren’t simple, they’re a reward for all the big wins we’ve had throughout the year. The efforts that we have made with so many injuries, to get here, to have the privilege of playing playoffs, while other big teams do not have that privilege, they have left the competition. So we are here, we are fighting for the career of all of us, these games are important”.
Finally, he also spoke about the support they feel from the world, saying: “100%.” It’s very important, I think throughout the year.”
On behalf of the Olympiakos players, Nikola Milutinov made statements, who emphasized that “we are always hungry” and expressed the desire “to do everything to win”. “Even if I play a little bit, I will support the team because it’s the playoffs,” the Serbian center said about the playing situation he’s in, and continued: “It’s more about the team and not about each individual player. It’s not about one player, it’s about the whole team and the important thing is tomorrow’s game.”
Referring to the key point of the game, but also to Barcelona, he pointed out: “In the first game we fought for all the balls, in the second we didn’t do it so much. Now in front of our fans we have to play even better and do our best to reach the victory. Barcelona has a very quality roster. We definitely have to do a better job, especially in the rebounding area and be better to get the win.”
Finally, he talked about how difficult it is to be ready, after a period of absence: “I have to be ready, it’s the playoffs. Even if it’s the first minute or the last minute, you have to be ready. We are always hungry. We want to make people happy and the organization proud. We want to do everything to win.”
Kostas Papanikolaou will be available to Giorgos Bartzokas for the third game of the series against Barcelona for the Euroleague playoffs… The “red and white” welcome the “blaugrana” tomorrow (4/30, 9:30 p.m.) at the Peace and Friendship Stadium and the coach of Piraeus announced in his today’s statements ahead of tomorrow’s match that the team leader will be “attending” the match. “Papanikolou had his first training session with the team yesterday. He seems to be a little short of strength, obviously he won’t need to play 30 minutes. He will definitely be present and I believe he will help,” emphasized the Olympiakos coach.
The international forward was absent from the first two matches of the series with the Spanish team, due to a virus that bothered him.
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