Missing the team's captain and Euroleague MVP, CSKA lost for the second time this season. It was too difficult against Real Madrid who showed an excellent shape and brought to Moscow all it's best players.
CSKA vs. Real Madrid: 78-82
Ettore Messina:
“I would like to congratulate Real Madrid which played excellent game from minute one. Even though sometimes we had a lead. We missed Siskauskas and Smodis, our leaders were tired in the end of the game but we cannot use this as an excuse. We could win the game if we played our normal defense but we tried to play offensive game which is not our style. We had some problems against zone defense because we were not so accurate in positioning and spacing. Though we missed some good shots this wasn’t a reason. There were not so much passes under the basket and when we found Viktor Khryapa there he passed immediately to Alexey Savrasenko and we had some easy baskets. But they were too rare. Also the team completely lost on the offensive rebounds. That was the main reasons of our defeat”.
Joan Plaza:
“We are happy to beat European champions, we are proud of this. Technically we played very serious game. It is clear to me that we wanted to win more than CSKA who already clinched the place in Top 16. Today we proved that we are good enough to get to Top 16 too. Probably Ettore works for the future now and we know that we are to see CSKA at it’s best later, when the team will play for Final Four. We are improving day by day and we hope to show our best game in February and March when the crucial time will come”.
