Luca Banchi shared his thoughts after Virtus’ win in Istanbul against Anadolu Efes – 67:64.
The Italian coach emphasized that a specific game was played in Istanbul, considering numerous aspects.
“An interesting game, we are happy for the win. Congratulations to both teams on this occasion. You have to understand, this is a very emotional part of the season, 34 games have passed, and then everything comes down to 40 minutes, in one evening…
Tonight we faced one of the teams that are in the best form, while we, on the other hand, have suffered seven defeats in the EuroLeague. Congratulations once again, especially to my team, I respect Anadolu Efes, but tonight we deserved the win and the opportunity to play another game.”
Luca Banchi emphasizes that from the body language of both teams, it was evident that they were ready to fight until the very end.
“We don’t have experience with playing play-ins, this is only the second game in the history of the competition in this format. Tonight, a different game was played in Belgrade, we saw how having the advantage reflects, how the home-court advantage can or cannot affect the game. Some teams had winning streaks, we had winning streaks.
Players come and give their all, tonight it was evident that both teams wanted to play a tough and demanding game. There were more turnovers, but you could see from the body language of the players that they wanted to fight until the end. These are specific games. Tonight, we were slightly better than an opponent whom we respect a lot, it was better for us tonight, but both teams invested a lot of energy on the court.”
Virtus will battle for a spot in the playoffs against Baskonia, which earlier suffered a defeat in Belgrade against Maccabi Tel Aviv.