By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
AEK Athens faces San Pablo Burgos in the grand final of the Basketball Champions League in Athens on Sunday. Head coaches Joan Penarroya and Ilias Papatheodorou, along with veterans Vitor Benite and Nikos Zisis took the stage ahead of the big clash to discuss their expectations about the final in the pre-game press conference Saturday.
“It’s an amazing history for the club. It’s such a young club, it started no more than five years ago and they managed to have one of the biggest fanbase in Europe. The whole city is in love with the club, with basketball. It’s not only about the game itself, but also how it’s beating with young kids in the city, and how it’s making everybody proud of the team and the city”, said Benite.
Burgos made it to the final of the competition in their inaugural experience and is more than ready to fight for its pride in the final, as coach Penarroya stated.
“Tomorrow for us will be an amazing game, a huge challenge. We play against a great team with a great coach, but we are ready to play in the final and play a good game”.
Tournament hosts AEK feel the responsibility of being the favorites in the game, though both coach Papatheodorou and veteran guard Zisis gave credits to Burgos, who had an excellent course through the season.
“Everybody knows about the talent of AEK players but this is not enough, we know that. We must be tough from the first minute. Our opponent has a very talented team, they have chemistry. Generally, it’s one of the best teams of the season. For us, it’s very difficult to organize everything in one day, but we must be tough, that is the key” Papatheodorou.
“The fact that we played an amazing game yesterday doesn’t count. Even if we won by one point and qualified for the final, we would be still happy. It’s easy to understand that the way we played these two games, is the way we want to play offensively and defensively (against Burgos). Many times game plans go out of the window, it’s just one game. It’s about the personality of the players, who wants it more, who might be luckier. We have to be ready for every scenario. We have to accept we are the favorites, this is the way it is, but we have a lot of respect for this team and coach,” mentioned the AEK captain.
Watch the pre-final press conference in full below: