By Stefan Acevski/info@eurohoops.net
Real Madrid secured a convincing victory in Round 22 of the EuroLeague, defeating Barcelona 80-61 on their home court.
After the game, Xavi Pascual was clear in the press room that there is no time for regrets.
“Today is one of those games that leaves no one indifferent, and the team’s reaction needs to be immediate. In 36 hours, we play in Burgos, an important match, to be seeded in the Cup, and we all need to react. We weren’t there on the day of the Monaco game, and we weren’t at the level today either. But without a doubt, the team cannot let this happen again. Winning or losing is one thing, but we must always compete. We had one off night, this is the second… Without a doubt, in moments of weakness, the team mentally collapses, and a big team has to learn to play with the score in favor and against.”
Pascual also congratulated to Real on their game, saying that the home team was “extremely superior in al aspects”.
“Congratulations to Real Madrid, they were extremely superior in all aspects of the game. We never managed to counter their physical level, we had two moments to get into the game, but everything went wrong for us. The team had been working well, on a good path… but we went on a counterattack 15 times and scored 4 points. We ran terribly today, the decision-making was very bad. And the team showed a very poor reaction, it’s a game to forget.”
The defeat was as convincing as it was clear, with the Blaugranas always trailing behind the Whites.
“The feeling was not good throughout the game. What generated a lot of frustration was that after a good defense, we missed the counterattack. Physically, they outplayed us, covered us very well, and we made very poor choices. The passes lacked quality, we failed… At 45-40, Campazzo scored in a very difficult action, then we lost the ball and fell apart from there.”