Sekulic: “Hapoel is a great team, it will be a great challenge and a great test for us”

Alexander SekulicBarça basketball coach, appeared before the media this morning in advance of the match that will face them tomorrow in Sofia (Bulgaria) against Hapoel Tel Aviv (7:45 p.m./M+), corresponding to the 10th day of the Euroleague.

The Slovenian He did not hesitate to praise the Israeli teamwhich he has defined as “a great team, with a lot of experience and very talented players. They know exactly what they want to do in attack and they can be really good in defense as well”, in addition to stand out that “they are doing really well in this first stretch of the season, especially in the Euroleague. They were the first to defeat Panathinaikos (on their court, 81-91)”, ending by stating that “it will be a great challenge and a great test for us.”

Despite the rival’s difficulty, Barça comes to this duel in a good momentafter stringing together five victories between the Endesa League and the Euroleague, a positive streak that Sekulic prefers to put into perspective.

“I don’t want our team to stop being hungry. It has to keep competing, trying to be better. We have won five games in a row, but that doesn’t mean anything. It’s just a reward for what we have done, but we have to keep competing and keep improving in each game,” he insisted.

About the difficulty and tight scheduleSekulic did not want to look for excuses: “It will be a very complicated month (November) for us. But this is the Euroleague, the competition we play and we already knew that before starting the season. We prepare for this and we will see it. As I have said before, this match will be a great test. We have many ahead of us, but this is the one we have now. It will be super interesting,” the Slovenian recalled.

Lastly, and in relation to the injured and ‘touched’ players, Sekulic has confirmed that “Juan (Núñez) will be out, for sure. Gibson (he has missed the last two games due to a knock on his knee) we will see before the game and now in training. Makoundou is still out, nothing new, and Balcerowski (absent against Unicaja due to discomfort in his right shoulder), will be available for the game,” he concluded.