STATEMENTS BY MR. ELIAS ZOUROS, HEAD COACH OF OLYMPIAKOS AND MR. SCARIOLO, HEAD COACH OF REAL MADRID, ABOUT THE OPENING GAME OF THE EUROLEAGUE

Elias Zouros "a possible first victory in Madrid is the best beginning"

"This is a very difficult opening game, as every first game is. For us it is even more difficult, since we are playing in Madrid, were we will confront a very good team such as Real Madrid. We hope we will have a game as good as the competition that begins with ambitions and, of course, we hope for it to be a success. We cannot say that there are stronger or weaker teams in such a game, but Olympiakos wants to win because that would help us in general. Not just because in the Euroleague the victories are of great importance, since the best winning team has the right to play in his own court in the play-offs, but also because a possible first victory in Madrid is the best beginning we could ask for the new season".

Sergio Scariolo "Olympiakos is the favorite in this group"

'It seems that at last the game will take place, so we are going to do everything is in our hands to try to cut the distance between us and Olympiakos, which is considered favorite of the group in all the surveys. The rest of the teams in the group have to show their quality and aspirations, and Real Madrid will have a notable role. Olympiakos' main weapon is the strong combination between their playmaker Rivers and the center Radja, but the rest of its players are really good as well and we didn't even which of them were going to stay out of the final list, since they have more than 12 players in the roster. In addition, we have several physical problems, for instance Iturbe has been discarded from the list. Herreros seems to be well from his problems and has a chance to play'.

Scariolo continues 'We'd like to have played with Fuenlabrada in the opening day of the competition of the ACB in order to be more in tune to play this game against Olympiakos, but we accept the decision by the ACB to postpone the game because it was the only reasonable solution in the situation we are in, after the incomprehensible decision of the CSD'

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