Georgios Bartzokas, the head coach of Olympiacos, spoke at a press conference ahead of the EuroLeague Final Four in Berlin.
In a repeat of last year’s final, the Red-Whites will face Real Madrid, and the Greek strategist showered the defending champions with compliments.
“The motivation is huge because we are among the four best teams in Europe and we are happy to play at this level, we are not thinking about last year’s final. Real Madrid is a winning machine. We have players who know how to fight, and I hope we can reach the big final,” Georgios Bartzokas began.
There were questions about the team’s status and motivation, as the Piraeus team struggled with injuries all year:
“The most important thing is that we all understand each other. We lost players who were with us last year, but we are here again and we have people both on and off the court who can show what Olympiacos means. We played our basketball, and that’s why we are here. It’s the first time the club has been in the Final Four three times in a row. The previous two times we lost by last-second shots.”
Sergio Llull, who haunts the Red-Whites’ dreams
“We didn’t watch that basket we conceded last year. We don’t want Llull to dribble with his right hand and shoot again. That happened last year, we don’t need to deal with it again. If it’s close again, I hope we have a bit of luck in those moments,” concluded Georgios Bartzokas.