Das Team von Coach Israel González hat das erste EuroLeague-Spiel der neuen Saison klar verloren. Mit 64:96 unterlagen die Albatrosse am Freitagabend im Palau Blaugrana von Barcelona. Gegen eine der besten Mannschaften des Kontinents und den letztjährigen Finalisten war für das noch nicht eingespielte und verletzungsgeplagte ALBA-Team von Beginn an nichts zu holen.
Von einem Spiel, das nicht gewonnen werden musste, kommt die ALBA-Mannschaft nun direkt zum ersten "Do or Die"-Moment dieser Spielzet. Am Sonntag empfangen die Albatrosse um 18 Uhr die Telekom Baskets Bonn im Pokal-Achtelfinale in der Mercedes-Benz Arena. Tickets für das wichtige Spiel gibt es HIER. Preview zum Spiel
ALBA-Top-Performer: Sikma 16pt 11rb 4as | Lô 12pt 1rb | Smith 7pt 3rb 2as 1st | komplette Statistik
Sarunas Jasikevicius (Cheftrainer Barcelona): "I think that we were serious for very long periods of time. I think we understood how to attack ALBA in these situations. When they changed the defense a little bit, we adapted again. I think it was especially good because everybody played a lot of minutes. Right now, we have a little stretch of a lot of games in seven or eight days, and it is very important that we all play together. We all contributed. The world is different in sports without fans. It is a little bit sad, and now, when we get people back, especially in our court, it's great. When you go on the road, not so nice, you know? But it's OK; we will deal with it."
Israel González (ALBA-Cheftrainer): "First thing, congratulations to Barcelona; they played a very good game. They played very good on defense, very good on offense, with very nice plays, and they played much better than us today. We are not 100% now. We knew this before the game. We miss a lot of players, a lot of injured players, especially in the 'five' position. We knew that it was going to be very difficult today but I think the team, in the beginning, was surprised by the level that Barcelona showed in the game. We never stopped working and I am happy because we made Barcelona get 15 turnovers. We faced the second half with good energy. In fact, we won the third quarter and the team was trying to do the things as they could. For that, we have to be a little happy about this. Of course, we are disappointed to lose, but our goal right now is to recover players, to improve, to do things better for the next games."