Bartzokas: "We will stay together and fight" (vid)

The Olympiacos’ coach, Giorgos Bartzokas, assessed that key players missing combined with the absence of the fans were the main culprits for the home loss to Red Star.

“I want to congratulate Red Star. They had a solid game on both ends of the floor for forty minutes. Of course they took advantage of the fact that we were missing a lot of players, either due to COVID or injuries. That was also a factor that had impacted our preparation for the game. We were also playing in a gym with limited attendance and it’s something we need to address. I’m not complaining, I have absolute respect for the Government’s decisions, but circumstances are not equal to everyone. We played against Fenerbahce in a full gym, the same with Maccabi and we came here to play in an empty arena. It’s still very early in the season. We have a whole round ahead of us to recover and we will do that through our work and team effort”.

Asked about the three consecutive Euroleague losses, he said: “Actually, the one defeat that hurts us is tonight’s. We lost a game at home that we should have won. I don’t agree with many people’s opinion that Olympiacos is headed to the Final Four. I know the teams’ dynamics, I know how difficult the process is, I know that up to now we have had eleven players down with COVID, almost all of them at around the same time. Doctors and trainers have told that this was going to have an impact on the team for about a month. And this was something they had analyzed from before. Someone is left out for a week, they also need a week to come back and then to get back to Euroleague standards, that takes another two weeks. Unfortunately, apart from today’s absences, apart from McKissic’s injury, all that have an effect on how we prepare as a team. Martin had not practiced due to illness. This, no matter how upsetting, is something we cannot control. However, we have a lot of time ahead of us. We will stay together and we will got to fight as many games as we can to make the final eight. That’s our goal”.  

Red Star’s coach, Dejan Radonic, commented: “It was a good game for us on both ends of the floor. We have had some problems with our offense in the first half, but we got better in the second one. For us it was important to make some good decisions at the end. We made them and got the win. We have had many problems this month due to COVID, but tonight we played a really good game”.

WATCH THE STATEMENTS BY THE TWO COACHES IN THE FOLLOWING VIDEO