MADRID, 25 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Real Madrid basketball coach, Chus Mateo, made it clear this Wednesday that a Clásico “is always a different game” and that Barça, whom he has defeated in the previous two they have played this season, is not the same because Now “he is playing very well, at an extraordinary level, and with much more confidence”, although his team is also in a great moment and “understands very well” what it wants to do.
“I think Barcelona is playing very well, with a lot of confidence, they have very talented players, they are a super team, without a doubt. We have to give time to the development of a team with good ingredients and they are now playing with much more confidence and They have achieved very worthwhile victories in the Euroleague at the home of Olympiacos and Partizan, apart from the other two against Efes and Bayern,” Mateo explained in a press conference.
The Madrid coach stressed that the Catalan team “is starting to get to know each other and is starting to get to know their coach.” “So when they have time, I’m sure they will play even better, but right now they are playing at an extraordinary level and it is very difficult to beat without a doubt, they have only lost to us I think I remember,” he warned.
The man from Madrid believes that what Roger Grimau is experiencing is “a comparable situation” to what he experienced last year in his debut with the current European champion. “But I also think that it’s different because he is finding the way to play very quickly and I didn’t all last year at this point. What I think is that you have to always have your feet on the ground and think only about working and that at the same time The long run bears fruit,” he noted.
“Of course we already know the immediacy that this profession requires and how results-oriented it is and it seems outrageous to me, honestly, that after four days there are already coaches who have left the Euroleague,” Mateo added.
He made it clear that he does not want to focus on a rival player, such as Willy Hernangómez, who arrives in good shape and after having had little impact in the previous two Clásicos. “There is a plan to stop him, Vesely, Brizuela, Satoranski, Abrines… They are a great team. Last week you asked me about Mirotic and we tried to contain the opposing team as a team, because I think that way things are done better,” he said.
In any case, he knows that the center “is playing better and better offensively.” “He is a great player, he has always shown it, with the Spanish team, when he was here at Real Madrid and now he is going to show it for sure in Barcelona,” confessed the Real Madrid coach.
For the coach of the European champion, “it is always special to play against Barcelona and even more so at home.” “It is always a somewhat different game because there is a rivalry and all of us who have supported this club or Barça understand that a little bit of that exists. Then you stop to think and think that it is one more game within a tremendous amount that we have to play during the year,” he highlighted.
“CAMPAZZO IS A PERFECT BASE FOR US”
Regarding his team, Chus Mateo celebrated that he is “understanding very well” what he wants. “I think we are being the team we want to be, defending with intensity, with the ambition to win the games, playing and sharing the ball, and being supportive both in attack and defense. And when we have some deficiency, we try to reduce our courage and that “I like it, but we have to keep it over time. The season is very long and we have to try to abstract ourselves a little from what is being said,” he stressed.
“It has also helped that we have been together longer, that we know better what we want to be and that we have more and more ambition to continue winning,” continued the Madrid native, who does not forget the importance that Facundo Campazzo is having for them. helping a lot to also understand the style of play” that they want to capture and “above all, to assign the roles much better and much sooner than last year.” “Everything is easier now because ‘Facu’ only plays as a point guard and is a perfect point guard for us,” he admitted.
As keys for the Classic, Mateo sees “it is important to stay focused and be patient because games are never won in the first quarter.” “Then I think the key is always defensive rebounding, which is one of the keys and not losing too many balls against a team that punishes losses very well,” he said.
Finally, he acknowledged that the postponement of the visit to Maccabi next week does not suit them at all. “Obviously, once you have found a dynamic, you like to maintain it and continue playing. In addition, we are very accustomed to a series of training parameters that have worked well for us and now we will have to rectify certain things a little on the fly. We like to maintain the dynamics and Right now playing is going well for us,” he said.