Olympiacos at Bilbao

Olympiacos is in Spain. The “reds” play against Bilbao of Katsikaris, Vasileiadis and Mavroeidis for the Euroleague premiere.

Dusan Ivkovic, who took 13 players with him, and Kostas Papanikolaou, spoke about the European premiere of Olympiacos.

DUSAN IVKOVIC: We are the team that has made the widest renewal in its roster and these away games are going to provide experience. We are behind since we have only played one official game in contrast to Bilbao that have played official games, have experienced players and are in a good shape. It’s a chance for us to show where we stand. We play in a “hot” gym and we have to control the game in both offense and defense if we want to win. We came to Spain rather early due to the given problems and that’s why we have 14 players with us. I’ll be deciding the roster at the final moment”.

ΚOSTAS PAPANIKOLAOU: Bilbao plays its first Euroleague game ever, but they have a roster with very experienced and talented players. We know how their fans give them enough boost and that’s why we need to control the tempo and not get carried away. Bilbao had been the great surprise for the Spanish League last season making the final, but they have also proved this season that that success had been anything but random. On the contrary they show to have a lot of potential. We have a very tough job ahead of us, but this doesn’t mean we cannot come back to Greek winners.