Panathinaikos has left heading to Croatia, where tomorrow (26/10, 20.00, NovaSports3) it will face KK Zagreb, in the context of the THY Euroleague 2nd competition date.
The “Greens” are playing after a victory over Unicaja Málaga at the OAKA in their opening game, while on the contrary the Croatians were defeated in Germany by Brose Basket (96-65). Playing for the first time in Euroleague in front of their own fans, KK Zagreb’s players want to show a better face. However, Zeljko Obradovic does not stay stuck to what has happened but his mind is already racing to the game tomorrow: “This is our first away game for this season. It is important for us and we want to have a good performance. It would be a grave mistake on our part to think about them having lost last week with a big margin. They have already “recovered” from that loss by playing very well against Olimpija Ljubljana in the Adratic League and losing by a 1-point difference in overtime. Furthermore, they certainly have high motivation playing against us. This is something that we have learned by now and we must be cautious and concentrate 100% on the game. It is going to be both a difficult, as well as an important game.”
Nick Calathes in his third year now in Panathinaikos and Euroleague, stressed: “We made an ideal beginning in Euroleague by having a good performance during the game against Unicaja Μálaga and want to continue performing equally well. After the games against Marousi, Unicaja Málaga and Aris, we are playing a game away from the OAKA. For our opponents this is their first home game in the context of Euroleague. We have this in mind too, as well as the fact that KK Zagreb is a good team, not that it was defeated in the opening game. It is to be expected that they will be highly motivated. We know very well that in there is no such thing as an easy Euroleague game.”
*Stratos Perperoglou and Pat Calathes did not follow the rest of the team.
