Bartzokas: «With the same atmosphere and concentration»

With their fans by their side and focused on the goal, Olympiacos will be hosting Monaco tomorrow (22/04), determined to win the second game of the series that will place them one win away from the Euroleague Final Four.

“Each game is different”, the ‘reds’ coach, Giorgos Bartzokas, stressed. “In the first one we were focused in the defense and we were making good choices when carrying the ball. What we all need to understand is that after the defeat, Monaco is going to be hungrier for the game, more ready, more focused and we should in no way underestimate them. I’m confident we won’t. We all know that it’s going to be a very difficult game and that in these kind of series you need to be immediately forgetting about what happened in the previous game, no matter if you lost or won, so that you can stay in the competition. We hope the atmosphere in the gym compares to that of last night and our team is as focused so that we can win the second game as well”.   

There’s no room for surprises for either of the two teams according to the coach… “Maybe you can have some changes in tactical matters. Obviously, both coach Obradovic and I, if we see that something goes different than expected, we are definitely going to change up our tactics. Overall though, the teams are ready to cope with any defensive philosophy the opponent is implementing. Both teams are going to be making minor changes”.  

Finally, about Hassan Martin’s condition, who has suffered a hematoma in the outer surface of his right hip and was not able to play the first game of the series, he said: “I think that he will not be able to play. In general, I’m not optimistic. We’ll see tomorrow though, the edema is very big and is really difficult that he’s ready to play tomorrow”.