Bartzokas: «The arena will be packed and we have motive»

Olympiacos will be hosting the European Champion, Real Madrid, tomorrow (05/12, 20.15 CET) in a packed SEF (the game is sold out). 

"I think that it's redundant to talk about the difficulty of the game", the coach of Olympiacos, Giorgos Bartzokas initially commented. "Right now, and based on the numbers, the ranking and of course what we all see, they are a team that it's very difficult to play against. Everything must be done right to win. This is the current situation in European basketball. They are a team that isn't faced with injuries, everyone has returned to action, they have team rhythm since last season, they have added Campazzo who has great influence on their game. They are a very experienced team. So, you have to play a very good game. Of course, we believe we can win. It's going to be a very nice atmosphere for us. The arena is going to be packed and our team has motive to continue with good performances. I think that we played well in Monaco as well, the game was practically decided in one or two possessions. So, we must keep getting better, we must become the best version of Olympiacos possible. With the new signings, I think that our ceiling is quite high".  

Asked about the course of recovery for Nigel Williams-Goss and whether Filip Petrusev is going to debut in the 'red & whites' jersey, he replied: "Neither will play tomorrow. Goss is almost 100% back from his injury, we hope he's going to play against Karditsa for our next Basket League game and from there on, join the team full-force. Petrusev will participate his first team practice today. He has only had two solo ones, because our schedule had not allowed for anything else, he hasn't practiced with the team not even once. As you can understand, it's impossible to have him play with just one team practice. He also needs time, I believe a week to ten days to come into shape, because he hadn't had competition rhythm with the NBA".