The Loko’ guard told us about how the team is preparing for the second quarterfinal game of the Winline Russian Cup against Uralmash.
- – What's the mood in the team before the game?
- – Fine. Excellent. We are ready to complete the task.
- – You are practicing with different balls than the ones you play in the league, right?
- – Well, yes. We train with the balls we will use in the cup game.
- – Do they differ?
- – I'd say, yes. The cup ball seems to be a little lighter.
- – Did it happen to you before that you not only had to win, but also to gain a certain difference in the score?
- – Yes, in my first season in the Eurocup. It was the last game of the Top 16 round in March 2021. In order to advance to the playoffs, we had to defeat the Italian club Trento with a difference of more than “+12”. We then had 7 foreigners and 5 Russians in our roster. Thank God, our foreigners granted the victory – 100:86. But it has never happened before that I myself took a direct active part. I hope that today we will write our own page of history.
- – What actually happened to Loko in the first game of the quarterfinals against Uralmash?
- – This game turned out bad for us in every sense: performance, defense, communication, attack. Okay, sometimes this happens. But today, I am totally confident, this will not happen. I’m sure we’re going to play our game. We know how to fight, score, defend.
- – Alexander Sekulić said that he perceives today's match not as a separate game, but as the second half of a long match that began in Yekaterinburg. Do you agree with that?
- – Yes, good comparison. You can position the current situation this way. Because we often have such matches when we win back “–15”, “–22” from opponents like CSKA or UNICS. Well, basically, the coach told us to keep in mind that we are starting not with the score 0:0, but with “–13”. From the first seconds we must make it clear to the opponent that today it will be very difficult for them, that it is we who intend to advance further.
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