Sasa Obradovic (Monaco): “These matches correspond to my life expectancy! »
Sasa Obradovic (Monegasque coach): “These matches mean the life expectancy of a coach (he laughs and holds his heart through his suit). At halftime, where we were trailing (29-48), I was mainly trying to understand what was going on, why we proved this match to our opponent, for no reason. I knew that Strasbourg could not repeat its first half to near-perfect, but I cannot explain our attitude. Despite our transformation in the second half, I am not satisfied to see that in the first half we played without a goal, without having the sense of what we must do to win. I don’t know this way of doing it. That’s not what I teach. I’m learning to respect the game, possession by possession. Not to play with reaction, even if it’s a bit of a habit for us this season (he laughs).
Today, it’s not the best team that won, but in the end, rather the one that had the most luck and talent in a crazy end to the game. Strasbourg was exemplary, they have a structure, game ideas, you feel a positive atmosphere in their team. We will have to learn from these matches to approach our semi-final more precisely. Our chance of playing for the title may be better than ever after going through this ordeal. »
“We were convinced that we could build something big” Lassi Tuovi, Strasbourg coach
Lassi Tuovi (Strasbourg coach): “Of course, we have no choice but to respect the result. But it’s hard to swallow tonight, knowing that twice, at home and here tonight, we could have finished the job. We could have eliminated this big team that is Monaco, we had the means. The way they came back reminded who they are. We had foul problems when we got back from the locker room which affected our game. After the first half, which we had dominated (29-48), we knew they would come back with other intentions, and maybe maybe we were a little scared of what was going to happen. Attacking got harder, we also missed a few easy layups and baskets, and you know what happens against those kind of teams when that happens to you. But in the end it doesn’t matter, the second half was crazy and it will be easier to analyze it in a few weeks.
There is pride, of course, in having gone so far. But we are bitter today, because we are competitors, and given our season and the basket that we developed in this quarter-final, we were convinced that we could build something big. »