Chus Mateo warns before the battle of Athens: “It is a match of necessity for both of us”

The Spanish basketball coach, Chus Mateois confident that, after the two consecutive defeats against Georgia and Portugal in the qualifying phase for the Qatar World Cup 2027the national team has to “learn little by little to react.”

The Madrid coach, who suffered his first setback at home against the Portuguese team in Saragossa, recognized the difficulty of this Monday’s meeting in Athens against Greecebottom of the group and which is risking a large part of its chances of staying in the fight for the first three places that give the World Cup ticket.

“It’s a complicated game because we both need to win. We come from two defeats and although we are leaders of the group we know that now things are getting tougher and it is becoming more and more complicated to be in the race for the top three to qualify and they also have the need to get the victory, because they play at home and only have three wins, so it is a game for both of us to win,” he said.

Mateo denied that, despite the great start in the qualifying phase, with five consecutive victories, he had already seen his goal achieved and stressed that he has never had “euphoria” “and we have to win every game.”

“It wasn’t easy before, nor is it going to be more difficult now, we don’t have to go crazy or dramatize the defeats or be euphoric when we achieve five victories,” he added.

For this reason, he opted to “have your feet on the ground, learn from defeats, which is where you learn the most and you have to know how to read,” concluded the Spanish coach.