Joan Peñarroya’s words after Barça’s defeat to Real Madrid
Joan Penarroya appeared at a press conference after Barça fell in two overtimes against Real Madrid in Palau. The Barça team suffered a third consecutive defeat in the Euroleague, despite the fact that it was close to winning the match in regular time.
Press conference of Joan Peñarroya after the defeat in the Euroleague Classic:
“Great game against a very good opponent. A match that no one finished consistently dominating. A game where I think we did a lot of good things, but it eluded us at the end of normal time, probably because we still lack the experience of playing in these finals and we are left with a Faku three. If you play against Madrid and you have a game in which you dominate the offensive rebounds like we did today, in which we scored 16 times more than them, giving up half as many goals as the opponent, usually you need to win . But today that was not the case. I think we made a great effort. The team fought, the team gave it their all in this match with two overtimes, which will certainly teach us something. The defensive work, which is what we demanded, has improved. “It’s time to continue, it’s time to get stronger because on Sunday we have to go on a difficult court whose energy levels will demand a lot from us and it’s true that we have players who have played more than we would like and that’s Truth”. We have some players injured.”
“I thought it was a shame that Neto couldn’t play more because he injured his adductor and couldn’t play. With Juan Nunez’s fifth foul, we need him to play more. But he noticed some discomfort in the adductor muscle, and we will wait to see what the tests show. We hope it’s not too much. “It’s also difficult to evaluate the three minutes he played.”
“It is clear that we cannot be happy. Firstly, having lost at home, we wanted to break the momentum; and then for losing against an opponent like Real Madrid and for losing the way we did. I think we put in a great effort, we came to the end of the game with a lead to be able to close it down and let it slip away… The team is hurt. “It’s still the same game as the previous 11 games we played in the EuroLeague, but obviously a Clásico is a Clásico.”
“It’s a matter of percentages. Yes, all the shooting situations could be assessed, some of them were incomprehensible, but I remember a lot of shots from our players who usually score, and today we failed to do so. We had a mistake in important moments that could have forced us to take a breath and reach a slightly more comfortable ending. But if there’s one thing a player wants during a game, it’s to put it in while throwing. We didn’t have a good day in terms of success, other than the fact that we clearly can play or create better situations in attack. But I would sign every game to score 16 times more than the opponent.
“Well, maybe I’m not here to evaluate the opposing team’s player. Faku played 45 minutes and we are talking about one of the best players in the tournament. He played a great game again today.”
“(On the unsportsmanlike conduct review against Campazzo) If you want, I’ll tell you that it’s worth answering that question, and if you want, I’ll answer it. From that point on in the last game we obviously wanted there to be no three. We didn’t talk specifically about fouls because there are a lot of artificial shots now. It has happened to us more than once that players who foul in such situations can throw three-pointers at you. It happened to us more than once that they were given, but we didn’t want three. “It didn’t matter if there was penetration, but at that point we weren’t able to do it.”
“Today we lost an important match, but we didn’t lose the title, right? And in the Euroleague we can be very defeatist and we have a bad streak, that’s obvious, but we are one win above the team we lost to today. It’s very difficult for us, but our competition starts in December and we have 11 games ahead of us. The details of winning or losing today were very, very fair. And it was definitely closer for us than for them. We haven’t lost a single final, haven’t lost a single playoff, haven’t lost a single title. The team needs to learn. And the team on Sunday must be ready to perform at 100%. Well, it is difficult to compete 100% in this whirlpool, but you definitely have to be prepared for good competition.
“(About a few minutes of Willy Hernangomez) No, the problem is that the coach decided that other teammates were playing.”
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