Chus Mateo: "Respecting our opponents is helping us to win games"
"Whenever Madrid come to your court there's extra motivation and we expect a difficult game," explained Alocén ahead of the clash against Asvel Villeurbanne.
Chus Mateo and Carlos Alocén spoke ahead of EuroLeague game 17 between Asvel Villeurbanne and Real Madrid (Thursday, 8:00pm CET). The coach spoke about the last game of the year: "I expect a complicated game because we're playing away from home, against an opponent that is improving and we have some absentees. We'll have to be prepared to play a different game to the one we've been playing, but we'll try to do our best, be intelligent playing in the opposition's half, make few mistakes in attack and defend well."
"We always come up against motivated opponents and even more so in the situation we're in, because you can see that they want to play Real Madrid on a level playing field, and if there's one thing we've been doing, it's respecting the opposition. Respecting our opponents is helping us to win our away games."
Pressure
"Building on victory is easier than building on defeat. It gives you peace of mind to have a certain leeway. The only thing we're doing is positioning ourselves at the top. You always feel the pressure at Real Madrid because there are a lot of people watching us and we understand that perfectly."
Our opponents
"Pozzeco has given his team a new look, they're more motivated now. They have good players. I'm sure we'll find teams who want to beat the current European champions. We're playing well, with a run of important victories, but this also encourages the opposing team to have nothing to lose against us. And that's why we have to be even more prepared if that's possible."
Alocén: "We must only think about our game"
"Away games in the Euroleague are always tricky. They're a tough team and we expect a very physical and hard-fought game. If we play our game and play the way we have been playing, we'll surely have a good chance of winning."
"When we defend hard and shut down the rebounding we can run and the game can flow more. That's kind of the key. It's not going to be easy because they're going to try to stop us. We have to think about our game and not get into their rhythm. They're not on a good run but whenever Madrid come to your court there's always extra motivation and I'm sure they'll take it like that. We're expecting a difficult game."