Olympiacos returned to Greece
Return to Greece for the Olympiacos delegation. The airplane bringing back the “red and whites” landed at 16:00 at the “Eleftherios Venizelos” airport and a few minutes later Panagiotis Giannakis and his players heard the fans of the team that had gathered at the area speaking comforting words and urging them to win the championship. The same had happened in the morning at the “Charles de Gaules” airport in Paris, where approximately 150 Olympiacos fans were trying to encourage the players of Panagiotis Giannakis. Papaloukas, Bourousis and Vassilopoulos spoke about the next day of the lost final…
TEO PAPALOUKAS: “I think that we hadn’t been as focused as needed yesterday and we didn’t show the intensity needed for such a final. Barcelona came on the floor, played better, and wanted it more. We tried to come back to the game, but we didn’t make it. I think the final score is not fair. The difference should have been more compatible with what we showed in the game. Life goes on, a day and half of rest and from then on we have to focus on the play-offs, which is our basic goal for this season. If we weren’t upset for losing the European title, then we wouldn’t be thinking right. From that point on, we have to learn, that when you play such great teams you don’t have the right to even relax for a second and much more when a game of that level is at stake”.
GIANNIS BOUROUSIS: “There is certainly disappointment and sadness, but on the other hand we are happy to have reached the final which is not a small thing in itself, much more having won a very difficult semi final. Now we focus on the Greek championship, we have to focus on our last goal to do the best we can.
The way we played last night there was no hope of winning. We start the games poorly in the last month and we did the same thing again. We have come back from trailing against other teams, but this is not easy to do with Barcelona. It was a fair result and we go on”.
PANAGIOTIS VASSILOPOULOS: “We started very poorly and we didn’t give ourselves time to calm down. We gave Barcelona the chance to play their game and we were left trailing. Olympiacos as a team can go after many things and easily win this trophy, but last night’s Olympiacos could not win anything, even if we played for two days. We lost an important trophy, but on the other hand I’m glad because now we know what we have to do right. We played against a very good team and we paid the price and Panathinaikos is an equally good team that’s why we can’t make the same mistakes. Great teams show their quality after a defeat. When you have lost a final, you have to show how good a team you are and that you are still able to go after the goals set from the beginning of the season”.