Georgios Bartzokas, the head coach of Olympiacos, shared his expectations ahead of the EuroLeague Round 33 game against Crvena Zvezda.
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Georgios Bartzokas, the head coach of Olympiacos, shared his expectations ahead of the EuroLeague Round 33 game against Crvena Zvezda.
The Greek coach emphasizes that his team must not underestimate the red-and-whites from Belgrade, as such an approach could cost them dearly in the Serbian capital.
“No team in the EuroLeague should be underestimated, even when they have nothing left to fight for. Teams without pressure play more freely. Most players have talent and good skills. Olympiacos approaches every game with equal seriousness, as was the case against Partizan.”
Regarding the lineup of Crvena Zvezda that will take the court on Thursday:
“I believe all their players have returned, including Yago dos Santos and Milos Teodosic. I expect them to be at full strength against us. Teodosic has a significant influence on the game, Nedovic was excellent against Real Madrid, Hanga is playing well, their tall players are good, there’s no particular focus on one player. It’s up to us to impose our game.”
Georgios Bartzokas expects a good atmosphere as always.
“The atmosphere there is always intense. Last year we lost, the year before we won by one point. It’s always tough to play against Crvena Zvezda because of the team’s quality and the intensity the fans bring to the game. We don’t consider this game as some kind of friendly.”
The Greek coach revealed which two players won’t be traveling to face Crvena Zvezda.
“Filip Petrusev is out of the team, we will try to recover him by the Peristeri game. Nikola Milutinov has completed two training sessions with the team, but he has been out of action for two months, so I can’t count on him either. Papanikolaou will play.”