Bartzokas: «We have to be ready»

Olympiacos will be hosting Armani Milan at the SEF tomorrow (24/02, 20.45 CET), in a very demanding game according to Giorgos Bartzokas’ assessment.

“It’s not a trap’, he made clear when asked whether winning the Greek Cup trophy last weekend can destabilize or ‘trap’ his players. “The truth is that always, when you play for one of the three goals of the season, you obviously spend mental and physical energy. At the same time, you feel kind of deflated immediately after that, especially if the games are against Panathinaikos, however, we have to be ready for this game. Let’s not forget that Armani has also won the Italian Cup this past weekend. We need to be ready because this game is also going to be very demanding for us, just like the following month is going to be”.

On whether he believes that Armani has improved compared to the first round game in Italy, when his team had won the game, the coach of Olympiacos said: “Milan is a team that has a lot of quality, experience, incredible stability throughout the season and an exceptional coach. So it’s a tough mission anyway. In no way it’s a game that we can win no matter what. It’s going to take a lot of effort, it’s going to take a good performance on our part and that we play as a team. Armani protects its rim very well, they play with energy, they pass the ball really well, they have experience. I think they are a team that will punish each and any mistake you make, so we have to be really good. I don’t think they are better in 2022, I think that have been very good since the beginning of the season, except for coping with some injury problems in between. They have largely secured a playoff berth, maybe even with home court advantage. So, we all understand that it’s a difficult game, we need to do well. The good thing is we are going to have the support of our fans, which is going to be important in terms of winning the game”.