Turin –
Coach Banchi’s post-game statements: “My comments begin with straight congratulations to the opponents who were capable of a much better game than ours, with greater cohesion, combativeness and humility. I think it is appropriate to take responsibility for such a performance in a game of such importance from a technical, tactical and emotional point of view as an approach to an event of this type, in which we had a duty to show a different face. I think it’s only fair that I take responsibility for such a performance in front of the ownership, managers and all the Virtus fans who even at this time have shown to give us their support and unfortunately tonight we were not able to repay them with a performance worthy of a team that comes here and plays with the determination and humility that were needed to interpret this competition correctly.
We built a very valuable lead that we squandered in a trivial and superficial way, collecting lost balls and very poor offensive selection that gave confidence and pace to our opponents and as the minutes went on they fueled their enthusiasm and belief that they could do it. Tension rose as is preventable in these moments. The game then becomes difficult to manage and we as said are the architects of a performance that was decidedly below our expectations and so it is right that first of all we apologize for a performance that is not worthy of the support we receive and we lower our heads and with great humility we try to quickly regain those values that have allowed us so far to arrive with the characteristics of a combative, courageous team that we urgently need to regenerate.
We have to distribute merits between our opponents and our responsibilities. As said we were sometimes naive, superficial, this is a testament to an inappropriate level of offensive execution and when we play at this pace we certainly become more predictable and they were good at taking advantage.
I think overall Faye is playing a solid season. I think playing on a team that only plays one game a week should also give him the space to progress individually. From the technical point of view but in general we have I think struggled to play with the pace that is usual I can give credit to our opponents but as the coach of Bologna I have only chance to intervene on what in my power to do, so my analysis stops at what we lacked not disallowing the merits of our opponents. We were lacking tonight as a team not only individually but collectively, failing to play with that rhythm and distribution of responsibility that has allowed us to get this far, with the credit, to think we are a team worthy of this stage.
The lack of humility is one of the things that has hurt me the most. We have a large team, with rotations of players that must allow us to be competitive on every front at all times, and these are particular times of the season where you also have to find the nervous energies beyond the physical ones to go beyond fatigue, assuming it exists.”
