By Stefan Djordjevic/ info@eurohoops.net
Dinamo Sassari got eliminated by San Pablo Burgos in the Basketball Champions League Round of 16.
The second game of the series was held in Spain behind closed doors due to the coronavirus outbreak and although the Italian team’s coach Gianmarco Pozzecco didn’t want to use the whole situation as an excuse, he did note that it was hard for his players to focus:
“This isn’t an excuse but for us, it wasn’t simple to play. You know better than us that we came here two days ago and we were closed in the hotel. Maybe some of you didn’t understand our situation in Italy. We are in trouble. We asked to play without fans. Just to be safe and healthy but I hope you understand that’s the way we, unfortunately, have to go. But I repeat, you deserved to win.”
The coach, who already seemed down during the press conference, got set off later on by a question he deemed inappropriate and, visibly upset, tried to explain that currently for him and his players, there are much more important things than a basketball game:
“My girlfriend came from Valencia today with her parents because if not, probably tomorrow she wouldn’t come with me to Italy, for almost a month. Because we probably go to ‘quarantena’ [quarantine in Italian]. Do you know what ‘quarantena’ means? Do you think I care about this game? And do you think that I push them to play?” Pozzeco stated and went on to criticize the journalist for asking him a “very malicious question”.
While leaving the press conference, he – in a way – summarized everything with: “I’m not happy how we played but we have more important problems.”