Chus Mateo: “We have to be at the level the opposition will demand of us"
“The team is hungry and we're expecting a tough game against Virtus Bolonia,” stated Abalde.
Chus Mateo and Abalde spoke to the press on the eve of Virtus Bolonia-Real Madrid in Round 29 of the EuroLeague (Friday, 8:30pm CET). The coach reflected on the match-up: “We're heading into the closing stages of the Regular Season and everyone wants to finish as high as possible. Only Olympiacos and Zalgiris have won at their place, it's a really hard court to travel to. We know that and we'll try and be at the level the opposition will demand of us."
“Sergio Rodríguez, Rudy and Causeur will all miss the trip to Bolonia. The first two are still recovering from injury. They're not serious but they need some time. Causeur felt some discomfort and we don't want to push it. We're hoping it's only a strain but he wasn't feeling quite right."
Demanding week
“We're only focused on Virtus. We have a big game at the weekend away at the second-placed team in the league but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. I haven't spoken to the team about Unicaja at all because we're only thinking about tomorrow."
Mentality and the opposition
“We're not concerned about the losses. We continue working day to day. We're up against an opponent who is looking to make the playoffs. They're a physical unit, they play good basketball with clear leaders in offense and good players all round. We have to improve our concentration, we want to be better on the rebound and with the turnovers, that may be down to lacking a bit of freshness. It's an important game and we want to perform well but we know how long the season is and how hard we have to fight to win titles."
Abalde: “We want to keep growing”
“We're hungry. We have had a few days to train and prepare for the next couple of weeks with five games on the road. We're heading into a period when every game is hugely important and every team has something to play for. We want to keep growing so we can deal with the key moments as a better team."
“We're expecting a really tough game. They're having a great season. We must have respect for them but focus on ourselves and get back to winning ways."