During the press conference after the game against Peristeri, Zeljko Obradovic had positive comments to make not only for Panathinaikos’ performance, but also for Stratos Perperoglou’s comeback, after the health issues he had to overcome.
The “clover’s” coach underlined: “It was the first time that we had 16 players to work with during the practice sessions. They were all healthy, they had all returned, and having 16 players to work with during the practice sessions makes the level of the practice very high; and we have worked very well too. The result of all this work was tonight’s performance. Now we must continue working like this because we know what is in store for us ahead. We would like to thank our fans for coming today and I have to say that I am very happy that Stratos has returned. It has been a very difficult period for him. We were by his side, he worked very hard, and I am very happy to see him make a comeback.”
Stratos Perperoglou, sitting next to him during the press conference, underlined: “It has been a very difficult period of my life. From the beginning I had the support of every single person in the team. I am very happy to have returned. I want to pick up the pace because I am not yet absolutely ready to help the team. Today we played a serious game. We have difficult games ahead of us in the Greek championship before the Top16 round, and want to generally accelerate our efforts as a team in order to be ready for it.”
Peristeri’s coach, Argyris Pedoulakis, stated: “It was an easy game for Panathinaikos. We had problems at the low post and were unable to be competitive. In such games we want the young guys to get something out of them, but with so many poor ball-passes and so many turnovers, the youngsters lived through what we were saying about Panathinaikos… unless it really happens to you, you will not learn; and tonight we did learn. You saw tonight too that we have problems; we played with quite a few young guys. We will fight against the odds, deal with all our problems and let the chips fall where they may… Tonight Panathinaikos taught us a good lesson…”
Finally, Socrates Psaropoulos noted: “First of all, I want to wish you a happy new year. It was a difficult game for us, but the young guys gained new experiences. We knew what we were in for tonight, but now we are looking ahead, to the game against Kolossos which is important.”
