Xavi Pascual: “We are happy with this victory, but we need to improve"

Zenit head coach Xavi Pascual shared his impressions of the game with MBA-MAI (103:75) at the post-game press conference.

— First of all, we are happy for this win. I also want to say thanks to all the supporters that were here today with the team. Hopefully we are going to have a great season all together. This is just the beginning, the first game. I think offensively we played more or less well full game. In the end of first quarter and in second quarter we didn’t play in defence on the level we want to play. We team is new, we need to work together to figure out how to act defensively and offensively. And step by step we need to get better. We looked good in the first game, but we have to keep working.

— Xavier, what new things did the students, the new players, bring to your class?

— Every season is a new book. We need to start writing from the first page everything in the right way. Now we are in the beginning. We are trying to understand how to make good sentences, good phrases together.

— Zenit managed to score more than a hundred points today, but there was a feeling that the team was losing rebounds, why was that?

— This happens because of the tactics. The opponent decided to play most part of the game with five players who can shot 3-pts. Based on tactics, it is necessary to find a way to win the game. We realized that we were losing some rebounds, but we had to keep playing.

— In previous years, when we talked about Zenit, first of all we talked about a perfect defensive game. Zenit has already scored more than a hundred points in the first match of the season. In terms of the offensive game, will your team be very different from what it was before?

— I hope that we will improve in offense, but also improve in defense. It is quite clear that we are still very far from how we want to play defense.