Ergin Ataman spoke to the media before Panathinaikos BC AKTOR’s departure for Monaco, where the team will face AS Monaco (31/10, 20:00) for Round 8 of the EuroLeague regular season.

“AS Monaco is a very good team. In fact, they have almost the same roster that reached last season’s EuroLeague Final. I also watched their game against Olympiacos yesterday — they played a perfect game, especially Mike James and Alpha Diallo. So, it’s going to be a tough match. There’s balance between the two rosters, as both teams use similar strategies.

We need to play smart, without making mistakes. And, of course, it will be very important to play solid defense, because they have huge offensive talent. We know that sometimes we play fantastic defense, but other times we struggle. When you play on the road, you have to maintain defensive balance throughout the game. Offensively, I believe we’ll find our rhythm. Rogkavopoulos will practice tonight at AS Monaco’s arena, and we’ll decide if he’ll play or not.”

Mitoglou: “We’re going to Monaco to win”

Ahead of the matchup with AS Monaco, Dinos Mitoglou also spoke about both his contract extension and the upcoming game.

On renewing his contract, he said: “I’m very happy and grateful for my contract extension. I believe both sides really wanted it. I’d like to thank everyone — Panathinaikos is a family. Mr. Giannakopoulos is family, Mrs. Despina, his mother, is family, his wife and children are family. I thank them all deeply for the love and trust they’ve shown me, and the feeling is mutual. I’m truly happy.

Pavlos was there, too, during the signing — we were together at that moment. It was a family atmosphere, wonderful moments, and I have only good things to say about the family. I’m very thankful for their love.”

On the game against AS Monaco, he noted: “We saw that AS Monaco got a huge road win yesterday. You can never relax in any EuroLeague game. Our goal is clear — we’re going there with one thing in mind: to win. It’s going to be a very tough game, they’re a very good team with great depth and quality players.

The conditions in Monaco are always different, every season is different. I think AS Monaco has more experience this year, and there are higher expectations. Of course, they remember that we’ve won there twice in recent years, but that doesn’t mean anything. It’s a completely new and different season, so I expect a totally different game.”

Finally, when asked about Vassilis Spanoulis being on AS Monaco’s bench, Mitoglou commented: “He has already put his DNA and philosophy into the team. They play very hard, with a tough mindset, so we expect a difficult game.”