By Cesare Milanti / info@Eurohoops.net
KAUNAS, Lithuania – On the first day of the 2023 EuroLeague Final Four in Kaunas, FC Barcelona lost once again to Real Madrid after last year’s defeat. The team manager of the Catalans and legendary figure Juan Carlos Navarro took some time to talk to the media before today’s practice, ahead of the 3rd place clash against AS Monaco.
“Without a doubt, it’s an option. Like he already said, we will talk at the end of the season about which are the feelings. From tomorrow on, we will have our eyes set on the ACB, which is super important. When this ends, we will talk”, Juan Carlos Navarro said about Sarunas Jasikevicius’ future.
“It’s a game, there are nerves. It could happen. We thought we came here in much better shape, with more expert players, and we had a horrible second half: without control, with a lot of mistakes, also at the free throw line. Real Madrid knows how to play these moments”, he added about the lack of concentration of the Catalan side.
Juan Carlos Navarro also talked about Nikola Mirotic, who only scored 3 points. “Niko has a contract. We want the best Mirotic possible from tomorrow on. He’s professional and he’ll do it in order to help us win the so important ACB after what happened here”, he said about Nikola Mirotic’s poor performance before moving on to the tactical side of things. “I think not everything was related to the tactical side, surely there were mistakes on our game plan, but we made more mistakes on a mental note”, he finally stated.