Xevi Pujol (Manresa): “Against Barça you have to do things perfectly”
BARCELONA, 31 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Barça’s sports director, Mario Bruno Fernández, recalled that BAXI Manresa have beaten them on the two occasions they have met this season and believes that the Copa del Rey quarter-final duel is open, like the rest of the Cup.
“This time there could be many revelation teams, such as Manresa or Breogán. It is a Cup open to everyone, and we play against a Manresa that has beaten us twice this season, in the Catalan League and in the ACB”, he recalled in statements to ACB Media Center collected by Europa Press after the draw.
In this sense, he commented that Manresa “never goes out to see them come”. “It imposes its rhythm, a very attractive, dynamic, vertical and incisive basketball. A very flattering basketball for the show and the fan, it commits us even more to be up to the event and to want this Cup”, he was honest.
“He is one of the best defenses in the League, and I define Manresa today as ‘run and gun’ (run and shoot), with a lot of melee in attack and defense, players who are into trench basketball, with physical hardness. It gives them results, they go third”, he valued the rival.
For his part, the sports director of Bàsquet Manresa, Xevi Pujol, believes that they will have to play perfectly to beat Barça again and go to the semi-finals. “You have to do things perfectly and stay focused, not thinking that it will be a special game but one more game in which to try to develop our game and find sensations,” he said.
From Manresa they knew that they would get a ‘coconut’. “You got a top seed, with what that means, and we get Barça, one of the best teams in Europe and ready to win everything. With the demands that come with trying to compete against one of these teams, mentally and physical”, he valued.
“We are happy to be one of the best in the first round, after so many years we really want to live this experience again. We are in the present and very happy. We came from five years ago being in LEB and having a promotion and going growing with the club, with the enthusiasm of the people, who push us a lot. We try to enjoy the moment and give everything, as always”, he acknowledged about returning to a Cup 18 years later.