By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Fenerbahce Dogus got the 92-83 win over Kirolbet Baskonia Vitoria Gasteiz in Game 4 of their playoffs series in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague.
With this win, they booked their place in Belgrade’s Final Four and coach Zeljko Obradovic explained what changed after Game 3.
“After the first game here we made a deep analysis and we tried to prepare ourselves for the game tonight. We understood that we played a game on Tuesday in a different way. We talked a lot of about it. We had to be more aggressive defensively and offensively. Except for maybe few minutes of the begging of the game, I believe that we played an excellent game. Defensively and offensively. We moved the ball, we played very good defense, we lead the game and we control the game. Very happy for that and with a reaction of my players“, said the legendary coach.
Fenerbahce will meet Zalgiris Kaunas in the semifinals. Obradovic coached Sarunas Jasikevicus in Panathinaikos, but this time they will be rivals. “I congratulate Zalgiris Kaunas. Saras is a really good friend of mine and he did an amazing job. Noone expected them to be here but when you find good chemistry with your players and do your job great, you can accomplish everything“, Obradovic said.
Obradovic didn’t miss a chance to praise Baskonia despite their loss. “We beat an excellent team and the team that knows how to play in every moment of the game. They have a lot of quality, a lot of good players, they play like a team and they have an excellent coach and the bench. A lot of people talked before the season that Baskonia have a lot of possibilities to go the Final Four and I thought the same. I believe they are the good team, it was tough series, but I think we deserved to go to the Final Four.” concluded Obradovic.
Pedro Martinez highlighted Fener‘s aggressive defense as the key to the game: “It was a game where Fenerbahce played basically better than us, especially in the first half. We started well, but we lost our defensive rhythm. They played more aggressively and they pressured us better. We weren’t able to be on the same defensively level. In the second half we played better, but it was too difficult to close the gap“, said the Spanish coach.