Chus Mateo appeared at a press conference after Real Madrid’s defeat in the fourth game of the series against Olympiacos that eliminates the whites of the Euroleague.
These were the words of Chus Mateo after the encounter:
«first give the congratulations to our rival to reach the Final Four, we will miss it this year.
Speaking of the game I think we started well, in the line we wanted. We started the third quarter very badly and marked the future of the second half. We were in the game, we did not have the feeling of being out but we had a disconnection for a moment that made us think of losing faith at the beginning of the last quarter when they left +15. They really are a team. When they put tymps like those of time many or Fournier or Papanikolau who was not and today 4 triples at important times. We have left our lives, we have returned to the meeting and we have had the last. In basketball and against a team like Olympiacos we have a very clear experience. Sometimes it doesn’t enter. In addition to a player I want to recognize the work he is doing and has taken the last shot very well thrown, taking an open shot is always a good decision and a decision to win and send the series to Athens.
I can only say that I can not congratulate you for not entering the Final Four and we are not to self -state because we want to fight to be champions but I can say openly and in a very high voice of the effort we have shown as a team to return to a match that seemed difficult and have the last shot again to win. Proud of what I have in the locker room, how they fight and how they fight. Give them the value of returning to a match that seemed unattainable against the best regular league team in Europe this year.
It is a joy to see the Movistar Arena as it was today. We are very sorry for them, for the illusion of seeing Real Madrid fighting in the 5th game. We do not put excuses but since April 13 we have 8 games played without stopping our league, competing in Girona, against Andorra, on Sunday against Valencia … They are superheroes because we have 8 games and Olympiacos carries 4, the 4 against us. We have to make a very big effort to compatible both leagues. We give ourselves accounts of the difficulty of winning a Euroleague when this happens and Real Madrid has 11 as a club, more than any. Now that we are not going to win it I would like to give value to what this club has, be trying to win every year. Give value to what has been done on other occasions to win the Euroleague, how difficult it is to win it competing in the Endesa League.
The day we stop we will come down, this inertia of the competition makes us move on, but we play every 2 or 3 days. Deck has been dragging from his injury … he half recovered but has been re -requested from a hip that does not allow him to be at the usual level and yesterday he could no longer. He could not make the effort that he would have liked and that requires a situation like this. He thought it was better to take precautions and not be able to continue forcing. Now wait for you to recover at all. Ibaka after the 3rd game the next day he got up with his knee very swollen and we had to stop him. They have to do what is, hopefully it is nothing. This continuity and the lack of rest playing every day and please our leagues and basketball fans … sometimes he has this, that the athlete suffers. We have 74-75-76 official matches. In the NBA are 84 and only with a league. These two leagues are terribly hard and in the middle of a Copa del Rey. We like to compete there but this is the invoice.
I will have to do (the fifth lack of tavares). It may or may not seem to me in the game and I think that I should not enter these things because I do not like to assess arbitration or today or the series. I will not do it. I didn’t do it in Athens and I’m not going to do it. We are athletes and we think that all those who are on the court, including the referees, are also. Sometimes we make decisions that can be wrong, I first and surely my players too. Referees also sometimes can also be wrong with bad intention. Yes, it is true that we have had many problems in the series to keep Tavares who is a strut for us in the field playing more minutes than I would have liked. But they are circumstances of the game, I do not want to take more rounds. I will not give it to him because I never give them to them and I already said it after the 2nd game. You will never see me complain about the referees, the injuries and the calendar I put it on the table but I am not going to complain, neither of the trips nor things about the style. We play to win no matter what we have ».
Photo: Getty Images – Chus Mateo
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