Before the upcoming confrontation, Žalgiris captain Edgaras Ulanovas shared his thoughts, describing the preparation process for the finals and the danger posed by the opponents.
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“Of course, we found out our opponent recently, so the first preparation cycle was more physical, to recover and prepare a bit. Today will probably be the main day when we start preparing specifically for Utena. It’s a good team, you can see they are in a good emotional state, playing well and have gelled as a team, especially in the last stage of the season. That emotional background looks good, which makes them a very dangerous team,” said E. Ulanovas.
The Žalgiris player also shared his thoughts on the historic “Juventus” run and the won semi-final series against Klaipėda “Neptūnas”.
“Yes, if they already defeated the second place in the standings (Vilnius “Rytas” – editor’s note), then why not. To say that it’s a very big surprise that they also passed the semi-finals, probably not. Against us at the end of the regular season, they also played a good game here in Kaunas. We saw that the team has really changed somewhat – their physicality is greater and they move the ball better. The quarter-finals were probably a bigger surprise than the semi-finals,” the captain replied.
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E. Ulanovas also commented on the playing style against a team like “Juventus”.
“Nothing new – we have to stick to our game, which we played all season in the Lithuanian Basketball League. We have healthy players, a full team, and we can use a large rotation, so if we manage to bring great aggressiveness and physicality using a larger rotation, we can expect a good result. This will be the most important thing, that we are emotionally and physically prepared and take advantage of these things,” added E. Ulanovas.
Finally, the captain also addressed the team’s fans and urged them to support Žalgiris in the arena, where the first game of the series will be played this Sunday, and the third meeting of the series will take place on Nemunas Island on Friday, June 12. We invite you to purchase a ticket package for both final games in Kaunas, with prices starting from just 15 euros.
