Pre-Tournament Quotes
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PRE-TOURNAMENT QUOTES Champions League, Round 8-10 Group A (Ostia) Pro Recco (ITA) 1st, 7W, 21 points – qualified Gabriel Hernandez, coach: "With the ticket for Final 8 in our pocket, first place is the next goal to hit: it doesn't give you the certainty of anything, but it's always better to finish first than second. Against Olympiacos and Jug we will find more difficulties than in the second bubble: we faced them a few days after the pre-Olympic tournament, a tough competition that burnt a lot of mental energy. My team, however, has always been ready and I expect it will be ready this time too: we are working well, we have a very high level of motivation and I am confident for these last two Champions League matches.” Jug Adriatic Osiguranje Dubrovnik (CRO) 2nd, 5W, 2L, 15 points – qualified Vjekoslav Kobescak, coach: “Despite the fact that we have already secured a place in the Final Eight, we are ready to play a good tournament. We are slowly coming out of the crisis we fell into in March and I expect us to show a much better game.” Daniil Merkulov, player: “It will be a tough three days. We secured a place in the Final Eight, but we approach the tournament as if it were the beginning of the season. We will give our best.” Olympiacos Piraeus (GRE) 3rd, 3W, 1D, 3L, 10 points Theodoros Vlachos, coach: “We are called to play the last three games in our group in Ostia, without having much pressure, but always with great motivation for all of us, when we are going to face big European clubs like Recco, Jug and the rising Marseille. We want to declare our presence in Europe with another qualification for the final phase of the LEN Champions League, in a special, difficult and different year for Olympiacos.” Kostantinos Mourikis, player: “We still have three games left to ensure our presence in the Final 8 and thus fulfil one of the goals we had set at the beginning of the year. I think we need one more point to secure the qualification mathematically. Of course we PRE-TOURNAMENT QUOTES want to win all three games and we will fight to achieve that. I believe that our team is in a very good shape as the competitive activity has started a while ago in Greece and we have played several games. We are ready to give our best to qualify for the final phase of Champions League.” CN Marseille (FRA) 4th, 2W, 1D, 4L, 7 points Milos Scepanovic, coach: "It is an opportunity to show our quality of playing, to impose our tactics and our rhythm from the start of the match against Ortigia. They have three-four very experienced players who know each other very well because they play together in the Italian national team. They know their limits too. So even though we lost the first game, we can actually go into this duel as a favourite." Igor Kovacevic, captain: "We have certainly lost against Ortigia in the first round but we know the importance of the 3rd round to qualify for the Final 8. We have been preparing for it for a month and a half. Ortigia is a very good team with their goalkeeper as a strong point, but we also know our strengths too and we will not give up to win this match.” Spandau 04 Berlin (GER) 5th, 1W, 2D, 4L, 5 points Maurice Jungling, captain: “We are all fired up for the last three games of the group stage. There is a good chance that we will reach the Final 8 with two wins against Marseille and Ortigia. But first we will concentrate on the game against Recco. Recco is probably the best team in the world at the moment. We have to play very concentrated and make as few mistakes as possible. If we can do that, we can surely annoy them and maybe get something worthwhile. The two games on Tuesday and Wednesday are very important for us. We showed at the last tournament that we could beat both teams. We have improved from game to game and now we want to show at the last tournament that we still belong to the top addresses in European water polo.” Peter Rohle, team manager: “Stefan Pjesivac is out of the team for disciplinary reasons. With Remi Saudadier and Marko Stamm, unfortunately, two more players are absent due to illness or injury. So we are travelling to Italy with a decimated team. However, we have great ambitions to take the wind from the last round with us and still make it to the Final 8. The team is motivated and the coaches are optimistic that they will accept this challenge and master it.“ PRE-TOURNAMENT QUOTES CC Ortigia (ITA) 6th, 1W, 6L, 3 points Massimo Giacoppo, captain: "We are not living our best moments, mainly regarding the results, because I think that, as a team, we still maintain the strength of the unit and our degree of physical and mental preparation. We just have to unlock ourselves, like the bomber who can’t score. We must unlock ourselves from the point of view of the result and acquire confidence. Then everything else will come. Now we are no longer a surprise for the other teams and they are no longer a surprise for us. We have already studied each other, so we know that there are teams that have grown a lot during the competition. Marseille is one of them and it will therefore be a very different game from the previous match, but we know their strengths, their references as Prlainovic, the centre- forward or the goalkeeper. I mean, it’s a very complete line-up. Then we have the match with Jug, which is a different team, but we know how to prepare them from a tactical point of view. The Champions League has made us understand what our strength but also our weakness can be. In this period we are also witnessing that in the domestic league. We can be a top team, like we can be a lower-level team. Now we have more awareness that our dimension is changeable, like many other things.” Stefano Tempesti, goalkeeper: "The moment is not easy, but we will face this round with our heads held high. We want to qualify for the Final Eight. Just as we did when we achieved historical goals, not to get excited, we must not throw ourselves down now as the road is still open. Both the one for the Final Eight of the Champions League, and the one for the semi-finals in the Serie A1. Everything is still possible and everything can change in a moment. The games are made of episodes, as we saw in Salerno. Let’s start again, because we’re a great team, we’ve proven it and we’ll try to prove it again. Whether we win or lose, we decide our own destiny. Marseille will certainly be very different from the team we met in the first leg, they will be in better condition. In the same way, however, we clashed Jug and Spandau who played at their best and who, like us and like many other teams, are now experiencing a difficult time. So everything is balanced and any result is possible.” PRE-TOURNAMENT QUOTES Group B (Budapest) Zodiac Atletic Barceloneta (ESP) 1st, 6W, 1L, 18 points – qualified Jesus Martin, coach: “It’s the last stop before we arrive at the final destination. Although we are already advanced to the Final 8, our goal is to win the next three matches in order to keep the first place in our group so we will achieve better pairings in the Final 8. This round will also give us a magnificent opportunity to prepare for the end of the season and perform at our best.” Dani Lopez Pinedo, captain: “In the next two months, we will face the most important part of the season. The next goal is to successfully play the three matches that we have next week. We should secure the first place of the group. Although we are conscious that there’s a hard work to do. We will play against three very good teams like Brescia, Ferencvaros and Jadran Herceg Novi. The most important is that we should land in Budapest in our best shape.” Alvaro Granados, player: “This new phase will be another test of our mettle and prove that we have learnt from our past mistakes. We are training hard every day to maintain our level, which allow us to be confident.” AN Brescia (ITA) 2nd, 6W, 1L, 18 points – qualified Alessandro Bovo, coach: "The first game will be decisive for the first place. Barceloneta has been playing great water polo for years and they are one of the top teams in Europe. Then will we have two more important games against Jadran and Hannover. It will not be easy because Herceg Novi recovered three important players and Hannover plays better than in the past months.” Nicholas Presciutti, player: "I love to play Champions League. We will start with Barceloneta that, according to me, is one of the favourite teams to win the cup. We will have to face them with courage because after Barceloneta we will play against teams who are fighting for the qualification. We'll have to show our qualities. Now we are at the end of the season and we're in all of the competitions and we'll give our best in each one.” PRE-TOURNAMENT QUOTES FTC-Telekom Budapest (HUN) 3rd, 5W, 2L, 15 points – qualified Zsolt Varga, coach: “We are finally playing again on the international stage as we are talking about important Champions League matches.