Check out what the coaches and players are saying ahead of Round 24 of the 2025-26 EuroLeague season
Pregame quotes, Round 24: 'I believe we turned the page Tuesday night'
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8 Min lectura
Thursday, January 22
Anadolu Efes Istanbul vs. Olympiacos Piraeus (18:30 CET)
Pablo Laso, Efes head coach
"Olympiacos is a solid and historic team in the EuroLeague. They have played at a high level for many years and feature very important players. [Evan] Fournier and [Sasha] Vezenkov are probably their best scorers, but their roster is full of quality, players like [Tyler] Dorsey, [Thomas] Walkup, [Alec] Peters and [Nikola] Milutinov can all step up. We’re talking about a team with great talent at every position. As I always say, so much depends on us. This should be a game of proudness – understanding that we’re facing a great team but also trying to bring out the best in ourselves. Playing at home, building our confidence is very important knowing that victories help to restore it. But at the same time, we must play well and continue working to improve every day."
Rolands Smits, Efes forward
"The game against Olympiacos will be hard. They are very experienced and talented team. We are ready for that, we need to stay together, give our maximum and win the game."
Georgios Bartzokas, Olympiacos head coach
"We don’t expect anything other than a tough game. Efes is a talented team with a good coach. They haven’t been doing well in the EuroLeague, but they always play for their pride. I believe at some point they will react. I hope it doesn’t happen tomorrow against us."
Thomas Walkup, Olympiacos guard
"Efes is a competitive team. They played well last night and it will be a demanding game for both sides. The most important thing will be to bring physicality to our defense."
Maccabi Rapyd Tel Aviv vs. Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens (20:05 CET)
Oded Kattash, Maccabi head coach
"We’re coming off a game that I’m not sure how to define. We lost it in the second quarter. We came in with a clear game plan, which we hoped would be executed better. There were lineups that were less solid defensively, and that affected the way we played offensively. When we played the right way, we showed that we can compete even against a quality team like Olympiacos. [Thursday night] is a different story. We’ll need to see whether Kendrick Nunn will play or not."
Jeff Dowtin, Maccabi guard
"This is a huge opportunity for us to bounce back after the loss. We’re expecting a big crowd, and we’ll play aggressively. It’s always great to get back into rhythm, staying healthy is important, and I’m slowly getting back to myself. Yesterday’s performance was another step in that direction. Chemistry is extremely important for us."
Marcio Santos, Maccabi center
"We need to bring more energy. We have to give our best to win. We need to be better defensively, communicate more, fight harder on the boards, and stay more focused. It’s always amazing to play against these big teams at home, especially compared to away games. It gives you more energy and a better chance to compete. I try to change the game a bit, and sometimes that gets me into foul trouble, but that comes from wanting to bring a lot of energy."
Ergin Ataman, Panathinaikos head coach
"Maccabi Rapyd Tel Aviv is a team with great offensive capacity, as was also evident in their most recent game they won in Tel Aviv against Zalgiris Kaunas. They are a team that averages 94 points in the games they win. They also scored 93 points last night in Piraeus, so the key to the game will be defense and controlling the tempo on offense with fewer turnovers."
Panagiotis Kalaitzakis, Panathinaikos guard
"I believe we turned the page [Tuesday night]. We are going to Tel Aviv with a different mentality; it has one of the hottest arenas of the last 15 years. We will go there to win the game. The ‘key’ is always defense—we may not have shown it in recent games. If we allow them to run, it will be a very difficult night. It’s an away game, and we have to stop them."
EA7 Emporio Armani Milan vs. Zalgiris Kaunas (20:30 CET)
Peppe Poeta, Milan head coach
"From now on, all EuroLeague games will be important and crucial to staying in contention for the postseason. Zalgiris is a team with great organization and the ability to play together. It will be crucial for us to establish our physicality right from the start, using our bodies to prevent Zalgiris from gaining rhythm and flow. Our fans will give us an extra push to achieve this goal."
Tomas Masiulis, Zalgiris head coach
"We’re facing a very serious opponent. They definitely have a lot of talent and plenty of experienced players at every position. We need to be fully prepared and know exactly what we’re supposed to do on the court. We started that game well (when the teams faced off in Round 5, when Milan won 78-89). Arnas Butkevicius shot the ball very well from long range. But our problem is that when we get a lead, we start thinking more about offense instead of defense. I think we’re handling those situations better now. We want to maintain our defense for all 40 minutes and not start playing one-on-one on offense when there’s still plenty of time left and things aren’t going our way."
FC Bayern Munich vs. Valencia Basket (20:30 CET)
Svetislav Pesic, Bayern head coach
"Valencia may not be in first place at the moment, but for me they are the best team in Europe, and have been since the start of the season. They are well-rehearsed and have developed great self-confidence. Valencia shows what can be achieved in basketball with continuity, both in terms of the coach and the team. It will be a very difficult, interesting game, for which we hope to be able to recover well in the short time available."
Pedro Martinez, Valencia head coach
"[Playing against Bayern] is going to be very difficult. We're going into it with very little training, or no training at all, because traveling sometimes makes it difficult to train. But if we want to be a special team, which is very difficult to achieve, you have to adapt to these kinds of situations. Rest, recover mentally very quickly for the next game, compete. When you lose, don't look for excuses, don't complain about travel or games. We are trying to make this part of our daily lives. If we want to be a special team, we have to be able to recover in a matter of hours, which not all teams can do. If you look at many teams' results, when they win, they struggle in the next game because it's hard to prepare. But our challenge, if we want to be special, is that we have to achieve this. And that's not going to be easy on Thursday."
Jaime Pradilla, Valencia forward
"Even though they lost [Tuesday night], they have been strong at home lately. They recently beat Panathinaikos there. Since the change of coach, they have a better defense. We know that it's a difficult court and that it will be very difficult for us if we want to get the win."
Real Madrid vs. AS Monaco (20:45 CET)
Sergio Scariolo, Real Madrid head coach
"Today, Monaco is one of the two or three most difficult teams to face in the EuroLeague, and I don't think it's a question of momentum or form. It's a question of real strength. They are the runners-up, who have even improved their roster and, for very specific reasons, have been at the top of the standings since the beginning. Monaco is demonstrating a very strong level of consistency. They have a large number of great ball handlers, players who don't need much structure to create a shot. In addition, they have a good group of very versatile inside players, people who can shoot and go to the basket. Their defensive level is very high. They are the team that forces the most turnovers and scores the most points. They have an apparently short rotation which, if they stay healthy, is ideal for making the team work well. I think Vassilis Spanoulis has added something of his own in this regard: chemistry. For us, Monaco is one of the biggest obstacles on the road ahead, and we hope to be up to the task, which will be a very high bar, in order to compete and try to win."
Facundo Campazzo, Real Madrid guard
"I think we're on a good run, we're coming off a very good game, but we have to keep pushing ourselves, especially in terms of our defense, which is what's giving us a good feeling and what we can control best. Monaco has a lot of offensive power in all positions, a lot of one-on-one play, a lot of ability to make difficult shots, a lot of scorers... They're a team that always demands 100% from you, both physically and mentally, which is why tomorrow's game is such a challenge for us. We want to see if we can maintain this positive feeling, and to do that we'll try to set the pace of the game, be solid in defense, and run the court fast in attack."
Paris Basketball vs. Dubai Basketball (21:00 CET)
Jurica Golemac, Dubai head coach
"[They have] crazy intensity. Their pace is the quickest in the EuroLeague. We know how they play, so we need to be smarter, we need to run faster and run with them, take good shots and no turnovers, because they punish every mistake."
Mfiondu Kabengele, Dubai center
"We've got to be physical, set the tone and get the energy plays. Limit turnovers, box out and rebound, and get out in transition. We need to set the tone of the game, especially on the road. Playing at their pace, they're one of the best at it. If we don't do that, we'll be in trouble. So being physical, making it difficult, slowing them down, and crashing the offensive glass, which limits their transition buckets, would be a good formula for the victory."
Friday, January 23
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul vs. Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz (18:45 CET)
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Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade vs. Hapoel IBI Tel Aviv (20:30 CET)
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Virtus Bologna vs. Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade (20:30 CET)
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LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne vs. FC Barcelona (20:45 CET)
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