Check out what the coaches and players are saying ahead of Round 14 of the 2025-26 EuroLeague season
Pregame quotes, Round 14: 'We're really excited to come back to Virtus Arena'
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Friday, December 5
Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade vs. FC Barcelona (20:00 CET)
Sasa Obradovic, Crvena Zvezda head coach
"We are playing against an opponent who had time to adapt to the new coach, who is one of the best in Europe. It is important that we record the victory. I expect Barcelona in the best possible edition, although the absence of Laprovitola is big."
Dejan Davidovac, Crvena Zvezda forward
"A win would mean a lot to us, because we are in a good rhythm and we should try to continue the same. As for Barcelona, an experienced team, great players, their first five are quite experienced, so... I'd rather focus on us than on them. There are no unknowns as far as they are concerned, and as I said we are in a good rhythm and I hope we will take advantage of that."
Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens vs. Valencia Basket (20:15 CET)
Ergin Ataman, Panathinaikos head coach
"Valencia’s results show that they are a dangerous team. They play fast, they run, and they score a lot in transition. They are athletic and tough, and we must control the pace of the game. We need to be smart offensively and avoid conceding points in transition. It’s a game after 10 days, and that’s a difficult situation. We were in good shape before the break with four straight wins, and now tomorrow is a new situation with tough games ahead, like Armani and Fenerbahçe. From what I’ve heard, the arena will be full again. Our fans have helped us a lot, and I hope the same happens tomorrow so we can get the win."
Juancho Hernangomez, Panathinaikos forward
"They make very good decisions. They’re a good team, with a good coach and good players. They play aggressively. It will be a very tough game. I think that here, with our fans, it will be a good one. I’m not a big fan of the ‘windows,’ but we are professionals. We have to get back into rhythm. The EuroLeague doesn’t stop, it doesn’t wait for anyone."
Pedro Martinez, Valencia head coach
"Above and beyond winning, which, as you rightly say, is very difficult and it can't be all about winning or losing, the goal is to try to play the best game we can. To be at our best in terms of performance, effort, intensity, and competitiveness. That is the goal, to compete above and beyond the result, which is to do things well and put what we train into practice. To show our values as a team from minute 1 to minute 40. If that is enough to win, great, and if it is not enough to win, it will serve us well for the next game. These windows, these breaks, are probably not ideal in the sense that they disrupt the teams' rhythm a bit, but that's the way it is. For example, [Jean] Montero arrived [Wednesday] night. [Nate] Reuvers arrived earlier, he also played on Monday, but on Wednesday he was able to train because he was closer, in Belgium. But Montero, between playing the game later and then being so far away, has only done today's training and the guy was a little hampered by jet lag."
Virtus Bologna vs. Dubai Basketball (20:30 CET)
Dusko Ivanovic, Virtus head coach
"After a little period of rest during the national break, we face Dubai, a really good team. Dubai is a new team in the EuroLeague but every player knows how it feels to play in the EuroLeague; they have a lot of experience and talent. We really need the support from our fans: we come back to our Arena and some of our players have never played here. For tomorrow's game, it will be very important the help of our crowd."
Matt Morgan, Virtus guard
"We're really excited to come back to Virtus Arena. We remember some good feelings here, especially from the last year. We will face a good team, we have to focus on our up and downs. Dubai plays really fast and strong, they have a lot of talented guards but also very stronger big men, so we just need to do our best."
Jurica Golemac, Dubai head coach
"It's going to be very hard. Virtus is playing great, especially at home. The team is very disciplined, the roles are strict, everybody knows what they are doing. We are going to need to be, on the other hand, is very, very disciplined and smart to not turn over the ball."
Justin Anderson, Dubai forward
"I think the most important thing that we need to do to win this game is play together as a unit. We have to share the basketball. We have to rely on each other. We have to support each other. This is going to be a great environment and a great atmosphere. Virtus is a competitor for us for the playoffs, so this is a big game and we understand the importance of it. We are preparing and are ready to go to battle. I think we need to prepare for a 40-minute game. Both teams are coming off a break. Both teams are excited to get back into the EuroLeague play and everybody's rested. So this is going to be an opportunity for us to come out and build some confidence going forward in the season. Getting a win here is not easy. They are 5-1 here at home, but the way that the game works is if you just play the right way, we play for each other, then if we come out successful, then that would be a huge momentum boost for our team going forward."
Kosner Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz vs. EA7 Emporio Armani Milan (20:30 CET)
Peppe Poeta, Milan head coach
"We face a team coming off six straight home wins between the EuroLeague and Spanish League, so it is clearly in good shape. Baskonia tries to play an uptempo kind of game, with a lot of possessions and very talented guards. The first point of our game plan is to be extremely good in our transition defense to make sure they don't go off too easily, because at that point they would become even more dangerous than they already are, especially on their home court."
Thursday, December 4
Anadolu Efes Istanbul vs. Real Madrid (18:15 CET)
Radovan Trifunovic, Efes interim head coach
"Real Madrid is a team with very experienced players. They have been playing in the EuroLeague for many years. One of their main characteristics is that their guards are very fast and push the transition game, while they have size under the rim. To play a good game against them, our focus must be on stopping their guards in transition and, of course, winning the rebounding battle because of their bigs."
Rolands Smits, Efes forward
"It is a very important game for us. Real Madrid is a very experienced and talented team. It will be a difficult game. We need to stay together and win this game."
Sergio Scariolo, Real Madrid head coach
"Playing Anadolu Efes is a very dangerous game. First, because of the quality and talent of an opponent that can attack the basket from many different spots and is excellent in the final seconds of the shot clock. We have to be ready to defend with a lot of patience, to use multiple defensive looks so that we’re still in good positions late in the possession to contest shots and secure the rebound. Anadolu Efes has changed coaches, and in the first game after a change there’s always that emotional reaction of bringing a lot of energy. We have to be very well prepared for that."
Alberto Abalde, Real Madrid forward
"We’re getting back to competition and facing a really demanding month of December, starting with a very tough road game in Istanbul. The last game against Hapoel Tel Aviv was very important for us—not just in the standings and because they were a direct rival, but because we saw the version of the team we want to be, and when that happens, we’re very hard to beat. We have to use that game to keep growing. Every game presents different challenges, and Efes is going to give us a lot of them because they’re a team with so many weapons. They’ve had several important players injured, although they still have a very complete roster. They’ve changed coaches, and that always shifts the dynamics, so we have to be ready for everything. We need to stay focused on the team we want to be—our identity, the things we can’t afford to get wrong—and from there, play with character to put ourselves closer to winning."
Zalgiris Kaunas vs. Maccabi Rapyd Tel Aviv (19:00 CET)
Tomas Masiulis, Zalgiris head coach
"[Maccabi is] a team that, according to the numbers, likes to play offense. They like to run, and their coach (Oded Kattash) is one of those who uses pick-and-roll the most. We’ll need to stop their transition offense and two-man game because they have very good guards and a solid system. We had a good practice yesterday (Tuesday); you can see the players missed basketball. They had plenty of free time, more than we’ve had during the season, so it’ll be interesting to see how we look in the game. Naturally, a break like this can bring positives but also throw you off rhythm."
Marcio Santos, Maccabi center
"We know Zalgiris has a good team. They have a great home court, but we need to go there and play our basketball. We know it's a tough game, and they've got good fans, but we're going there to try to win. We need to stay focused."
Oshae Brissett, Maccabi forward
"I think we're all excited for a game like that. It's been a while since we've had some fans like that, one of the best in the EuroLeague. I think that alone gives us the fuel to go there to try to get the win. It's going to be a tough game, but we're excited for it."
AS Monaco vs. Paris Basketball (19:30 CET)
Elie Okobo, Monaco guard
"Two days ago, in the French Cup, we had a game with little defense, lots of quick shots, and especially three-pointers... We know that's Paris's identity, they play very fast on offense. I don't know if we managed to slow them down in that regard, but in any case we scored more points than them, playing solidly and consistently overall. We've made it through to the next round of the cup, which is good, but now we want to get a win to keep playing at the top of the EuroLeague standings. We can't be satisfied with this win, we have to go out and get another one."
Hapoel IBI Tel Aviv vs. LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne (20:05 CET)
Dimitris Itoudis, Hapoel coach
"ASVEL is a very athletic-sized team with experienced players. They have a lot of experience, but they also have youth, talent, and athletic players who can really run the floor and defend at the highest level. Overall, they have a well-balanced game. But with all the respect to ASVEL, I'm thinking about our team - about how we can bounce back and play better."
Antonio Blakeney, Hapoel guard
"I expect us as a team to come out and play hard, give it all we got, and try to bounce back from our last game."
Olympiacos Piraeus vs. Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul (20:15 CET)
Georgios Bartzokas, Olympiacos head coach
"We’re expecting a tough game. Fenerbahçe is coming off five straight wins, four of them at home, and they’re clearly in good form with injured players returning. Their style is a bit different compared to last season — they’re playing more isolation basketball now. They shoot the ball well and are very strong in transition. It will be a difficult matchup for us. We’re coming from the loss in Belgrade; we controlled the game until the 25th minute, but then we had a really poor stretch with bad decisions and mistakes that led to too many transition points. We didn’t manage the game the way we should have. Tomorrow we need to be much more focused in that area so it doesn’t happen again."
Donta Hall, Olympiacos center
"Fenerbahçe is a very strong team. They’re the European champions and are on a winning streak. But in tomorrow’s game, we first need to focus on ourselves. We have to take care of the ball, grab the rebounds, make better decisions on offense, and play Olympiacos basketball."
Sarunas Jasikevicius, Fenerbahce head coach
"We're playing against a team that is aspiring everything, you know, all the highest achievements in our league. It's always difficult to play in Piraeus. We have to focus on stopping their ball movement and team game and obviously pay more attention to the players that are having amazing seasons, like [Nikola] Milutinov, [Tyler] Dorsey and [Sasha] Vezenkov."
Devon Hall, Fenerbahce guard
"Obviously, a very good team; it'll be a good atmosphere, and we just got to make sure we bring physicality to the game. I think composure, physicality and being patient will be keys for the win."
Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade vs. FC Bayern Munich (20:45 CET)
Mirko Ocokoljic, Partizan interim head coach
"After a short break, we had a few days to practice and prepare certain things in the best possible way. We also worked on parts of our game that weren’t good enough, especially our consistency throughout all four quarters. We need to fight for every ball, battle on the boards, and raise our intensity and energy level. After a detailed analysis of Bayern, I believe we’ll be ready for tomorrow, even though we know it’s going to be a tough game."
Aleksej Pokusevski, Partizan forward
"We've had a couple of good practices. They are a quality team, and although they haven’t had many wins in their recent games, I expect them to come in very hungry for success. They have many talented players, and their coach is back, so a tough game is ahead of us. I think that, at this moment, everything depends on us."
Gordon Herbert, Bayern head coach
"As always in Belgrade, the first thing we have to do is handle the atmosphere and the certainly changed scenario after Coach Obradovic’s resignation. That means we have to take care of the ball on offense and control the tempo of the game so that Partizan can’t showcase their great talent. The key will be rebounding."
