Courtesy: LEN
At the press conference before the Euro League Final Four in Piraeus, all four participating teams showed up and coaches and players of the respective clubs shared their expectations before the big event starts on Saturday. Here are what they had to say.
Semi-final 1
UVSE-Hunguest Hotels (HUN)
Marton Benczur, coach – “We’ll play against one of the teams with which we maintain a very friendly relationship, I’d say, though I’m sure tomorrow this friendship will not exist in the water among the players. It’s a great task as we face a very strong team in the semi-final. Maybe we are the underdogs, but we love this kind of challenges. We will do everything to win two games in two days and I’m confident we can achieve that. I trust in my team, we are young, a good mix of experienced and young players, we have only Hungarians in our roster, half of them are under 18 years but I’m sure they will show how talented they are.”
Gabriella Szucs, captain – “I think our team is pretty much prepared for the game tomorrow. We had very good preparations for the coming weekend, we did the best to be ready for the atmosphere, we created a soundtrack for one our trainings to try to create the amazing atmosphere for our young players in order not be stunned on site in Piraeus. I think this way we were getting ready both mentally and physically for this weekend. We have to show 100 percent, it’s only one game, so we my upset Olympiacos.”
Olympiacos Piraeus (GRE)
Aleksandar Ciric, coach – “We are the reigning champions, and we face the same challenge as in last year, a game against UVSE in the semi-final. They showed a really good performance a year ago and they did well this year too. They had a brilliant goalkeeper and great players on the perimeter so it’s going to be an interesting game and a spectacular event here in Piraeus. This is the city of water polo this week, we had the LEN Trophy final here on Wednesday, now comes the Euro League Final Four, we can’t wait to be in the pool and start the game. For me, it’s a nice job to lead this team in the footsteps of Mr Pavlidis who is one of the greatest coaches and during his fifteen years here he created something which is huge and historical both in the European and world water polo. It’s a big change for me to coach girls after the boys but I think the principles and the training methods are more or less the same.”
Margarita Plevritou, captain, Olympiacos – “I’m very happy to have the Final Four once again in Greece after 2015. We remember the great atmosphere from the last occasion and it’s great to play in front our fans and families.”
Semi-final 2
Astralpool Sabadell (ESP)
David Palma, coach – “We are very excited to play here in Piraeus again, the pool, the fans, the atmosphere are all fantastic. We face Padova in the semis and we have a huge respect towards our Italian rivals as we know from experience how hard it is to play against them.”
Martje Keuning, player – “We are very happy to be back and play in the Final Four again. Last year the team didn’t make it, and the players missed this event too. We are very well prepared for these two matches and I’m too excited already, to be honest!”
Plebiscito Padova (ITA)
Stefano Posterivo, coach – “The atmosphere in Piraeus is always incredible, it’s a pleasure to play in this kind of atmosphere, especially when you are in the Euro League Final Four, the most important club event in women’s water polo. We have four very strong teams here and we play with Sabadell, the top club of the past decade. We are ready to play and fight and give our maximum in the pool.”
Laura Teani, captain – “We are very excited to be here, at the best event in women’s water polo. It is very tough to play with Sabadell, but we want and have to do our best and then we can achieve a good result.”