The words of Gianluca Tucci on the eve of the EuroCup big-match with Badalona:
“It will be an important match for both teams. They are one of the accredited formations for the final victory and are aiming for first place, we are aiming to reach the highest possible position. It’s a fundamental match because we play it at home after having shown, in the first leg, that we can play it on equal footing. I think Joventut has its strengths under the basket: compared to the first leg, Birgander and Brodziansky recovered, as well as Tomic and Ellenson; they therefore have a long section with Euroleague experience. Furthermore, like all Spanish teams, they have physically important players like Parra in the 3 and very experienced wingers. This is a time when we look a lot at ourselves and at our desire for improvement. We are making progress in terms of pace, aggression, cohesion and also chemistry. We are very happy to have achieved two consecutive successes, it hasn’t happened for a long time and he must give us confidence. We trust in the support of the public from the first to the last minute, as in the match against Bologna, even if it was unlucky. We are going towards the final part of the season where we will play the Eurocup playoffs and we want to try and qualify for the league ones.
Moraschini returned to training today and we hope he’ll be available for tomorrow, plus De Nicolao has fully recovered from the flu. There are players called to play extra minutes, we played extra time on Sunday and there will be a little further tiredness, but I have to say that we are used to these situations and also to give 100% in difficulties. The bench is working to raise its contribution, especially in terms of energy, but in general it is the team that is growing in terms of sacrifice and desire to fight.
Last but not least, we have a desire for sporting revenge for how the first leg ended, which we deserved to take home”.