The Slovenian coach has highlighted that, although the Lenovo Tenerife is a very “choral” team, He has some proper names that you have to know how to “neutralize”, one of them Huertas, but he has also spoken about the importance of the center Giorgi Shermadini.
“Surely, Marcelinho (Huertas) or Shermadini are the driving forces of this Tenerife, but we do not have to underestimate the rest, because each one can contribute many things to their team. We have to pay attention to the entire team and play as a team, both in attack and defense,” said the yellow coach in a press conference held this Thursday at the Santa Catalina Hotel.
For this meeting, The coach has doubts about whether the forward will be able to jump onto the hardwood. Nico Brussinowho suffered an ankle injury in the last Endesa League match in Zaragoza: “He has returned straight from Zaragoza to Gran Canaria to start treating the ankle and the latest information we have is that it will be a doubt until the last moment.
Both teams come to this clash of great rivalry immersed in good dynamics, after having had a hesitant start to the season, and Lakovic has expressed himself “happy” with the change that Granca has experienced in recent weeks, “with the effort and the work of the team.
Regarding his rival, he noted: “They have started the season a little slower, but lately they are already in Lenovo mode, and it will be a very difficult game, as it always is. We hope to be well prepared physically, with a lot of energy and effort to put ourselves in a position that allows us to win the game.”
And he has also stressed that, despite the compressed schedule, his players are aware of the value that this match has for the archipelago, which is why they will take to the hardwood “with the maximum enthusiasm and energy” necessary.
“We had a party”
For his part, the president of Dreamland Gran Canaria, Sitapha Savanehas encouraged fans to attend Sunday’s game, in which there are already more than 6,000 seats sold: “The Copa del Rey passes through the Arena, and starts with this derby, so there is a double incentive.”
He has assured that the team has put on “a party, it is going to look like a traditional stall” for the previous match and that he hopes that victory will be achieved.
“We are looking forward to this match, both teams are surely in their best moment of the season after a difficult start. Now, with all the motivation in the world, because in addition to being a derby, it is a match to take a step forward towards the first objective of the season,” highlighted the yellow president.
According to Savané, Lenovo Tenerife has taken “the measure” of them in recent seasons, but he knows that this has been “another motivation” for the squad ahead of the ultimate rivalry clash.
And he recalled to journalists an anecdote from his time as a yellow player: “Jim Moran and I went to get some roast chickens, and we entered the establishment and the man who served us – the season had started very well but we had lost against the Canary Islands-, he tells us: ‘What a job’. We told him that we had started very well, I don’t know if we were fifth in the league, and he replied: ‘I don’t care about anything else, I want to beat the chicharreros.'”
“This is the message we are trying to convey, and those who have experienced it on both sides know the importance of a derby,” he concluded.
