Barcelona, Xavi Pascual after elimination: “We had to reinvent ourselves many times”

Barcelona is out of the EuroLeague after the loss in Monaco, and Xavi Pascual pointed to both the poor start and the injury to Tomas Satoransky as key factors.
The Blaugrana coach spoke about a decisive first quarter, a much better second half, and a European campaign constantly shaped by problems.

After the 79-70 defeat against Monaco, Pascual said the game was largely decided in the opening quarter, when Barcelona lost control on both ends of the floor. Satoransky’s injury made the situation even worse, although the Spanish side did respond after halftime and managed to get back into the game before missing a few key three-point chances.

“Everything was decided in the first quarter, we did not play well and on top of that Satoransky got injured. We lost control of the game on offense and defense, we froze and did not react,” Pascual said. He then added: “In the second half we were a completely different team, we got back into the game and had chances to win, but we missed two or three opportunities from three-point range”. On the Czech guard, he explained: “Satoransky suffered a back injury. We tried to inject him, he tried to continue, but he could not”.

Looking at the overall EuroLeague campaign, Pascual expanded on the difficulties his team has faced over recent months. “A lot of things happened to us,” he admitted. He also said: “We were always chasing, we had to reinvent ourselves many times, physically we went down many times because of injuries, and we entered the final stretch with problems”. Now the focus shifts to the domestic league: “In 36 hours we will play against Baskonia, and it will not be easy. We have to recover”.