MADRID, 13 One. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Bitci Baskonia’s coach, Neven Spahija, acknowledged having the feeling that his team is going to play as if it had faced the preseason and that although he looks “good”, now he will have to prove it against Real Madrid, whom he considers “now the best team in Europe “.
The Croatian coach has finally returned to his team’s training sessions after spending two weeks, “a hard and bad time without players or games”, due to the coronavirus and he was “happy to go back to work.” “At the training and preparation level the team is fine, let’s see what the games tell us now because playing is something else,” he said at a press conference this Thursday.
Spahija knows that they have a “complicated and tough” trip to Madrid in the Euroleague and that it comes after a break of “two weeks without matches” due to positive cases and after having won “two very important matches” in the continental competition against Bayern and to Barça. “We are going to have five in a row in nine days and it will be complicated, but we have an idea and we are going to see how it works,” he warned.
The Baskonista coach believes that “the way” in which they played against the Blaugrana team and by how they “reacted” that day after having lost 18 two days before in Zaragoza showed that the team is “well prepared”.
“But now we have only had training sessions and I have the feeling that it is like when we return from a preseason, we are going to see what the games tell us. The attitude of the players and the physical level are there, but playing games at this level and against a The team that I think is now the best in Europe is going to be difficult, “said Spahija, who said that against Real Madrid you shouldn’t do” any specific thing. ” “If you want to beat him, you must defend, do things in attack, play one of the best games of the season,” he said.
Furthermore, although he does not hide “how important” the Endesa League games are “to be in the Copa del Rey”, he recalled that they cannot “choose”. “We have to go match by match and play our best to win. If we have that attitude and play as we want, surely something will come out,” said the Croatian.
Finally, after the departure of Cameroonian center Landry, he made it clear that they do not want to “change to change” and that if they sign something it will be “a player who is the right one for this team.” “We can play with Costello of ‘5’ and Alec Peters is already there,” he said, asking for calm with the latter because more than what he does this Friday he is interested in “playing again.”