This is what the protagonists of the game had to say after the dust settled.
Priftis on Panathinaikos win: "It's good the way we won"
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4 mins read
Dimitris Priftis, Panathinaikos OPAP Athens
Congratulations to the players for the first win of the season and to the fans. They supported us and I think they were a factor for this game and for this win. Regarding the game, we have a lot of things to do better, to put them into the game, a lot of rules to follow with more consistency. I think we need to improve and to progress. Right now, it looks to me that we have to improve a lot of things. It's good the way we won, but I see a lot of things we have to correct. At least, this win gives us an optimistic atmosphere to keep working."
Nemanja Nedovic, Panathinaikos OPAP Athens
“We didn’t give up to the end. I think we fought until the end, when we were 5 points down, I told the guys, keep believing, as I thought we still had a chance. We have to build on this.”
Daryl Macon, Panathinaikos OPAP Athens
"It feels amazing. I don’t think I’ve lived an atmosphere like this. This is the first time like that in my entire life. We started 0-2 in the season and this feels amazing. I think we needed this to boost our confidence and get together more. We have to stay humble, keep working and build on this. I wish I could have dreamed of this atmosphere, it was crazy. These are the best fans I’ve ever seen it’s crazy, it was unreal tonight."
Sasa Djordjevic, Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul
"First of all congratulations to the winning team. It was a good game, a physical game, we knew it and we were ready for it. As soon as we started to control their offensive rebounding, forced shots in the first half, we came back with some runs on the other side, nevertheless, they kept on pushing all the way, and the way the game finished something in me as the coach who lost the game until I see all the episode, I cannot tell exactly how I feel or what I think. There are so many mixed things in my mind that I don’t know what to say, to not make a mistake towards the athletes on the floor or the winning team. My understanding of the game is the fair play for both teams. I don’t feel it was like that. But this is basketball, we have to live with it, we have to live with fouls, with the unsportsmanlike foul in the last seconds of the game, with 2.7’ or whatever it was, and we have to live also with our mistakes. We should have finished the game differently, we should have had more experienced guys on the floor, we didn’t make the right choices offensively and it could have gone differently, but that’s basketball.
"It’s not the way to finish the game. We should have finished it differently, and that’s when experience comes in and that’s when you don’t do the stuff you must do on the floor. If referees challenge it, and they call a foul, an unsportsmanlike foul, I think the third, which was the fifth of Guduric, you have had to make that foul differently. It’s difficult to teach that, because in those situations you have to bring that in your bag as a player and to understand, with individual tactics, to finish games like this. Also I know the lob pass Nando to [Vesely] was not the right decision to take. He is our most experienced player, but those are things we have to live with."