Presenting the Final Four participants, Piešťany wants to take advantage of its home environment

The first culmination of the 2023/2024 season of the Alpe Adria Cup is here, with the Final Four of the women’s version of the competition taking place in Piešťany on 9 and 10 March. In interviews with the coaches, we will introduce the participants one by one. To begin with, we take a look at the home team Piesťanské Čajky, who are looking to achieve their high ambitions.

– You are part of the Final Four of the Alpe Adria Cup. How do you feel about the fact that you managed to get through the group stage?

„I evaluate it very positively, also how we made it to the Final Four. By going into a competition that we didn’t know what the quality was going to be and what it was going to look like, so we accomplished the goal that we had. It’s now the culmination of the climax in front of us.“

– How do you evaluate your performance in the Alpe Adria Cup so far?

„Our results and performances have been so up and down. Once we played really well, then there were some weaker games. There were reasons for that, for example, the second tournament came after we were eliminated in the Eurocup, so our concentration dropped a bit and our performances were not so good. In the last tournament, we didn’t make it through the final game, which was a raised finger for us to get back to our game. At the end of the day, in summary, we accomplished what we had to accomplish, except for that last game, which we didn’t get done.“

– You are part of the first year of this competition, how do you evaluate it and how do you feel about its potential in the future?

„As I mentioned at the beginning, we didn’t know what we were getting into. Unfortunately, I’m probably going to be a bit critical, but the quality is probably not what we imagined. On the one hand, it’s nice to play teams from other countries to have a European confrontation. But maybe we need to look for a bit better opponents or find a different model. Those tournaments are not exactly easy, playing two games in a weekend. Maybe the men’s model of playing home-away is better, but that’s up to the competition authorities. I think the Alpe Adria Cup has some potential, but we need to sit down and break down the first edition.“

– The Final Four is in front of you, what kind of mindset are you going into it with?

„We are the hosts of the Final Four, so our only goal is to make it to the finals and be successful in the last game as well. We have to go one game at a time, so there is no need to think forward. We have to get through the semi-final match first and then we will look beyond that. We are definitely going with the mindset that we want to do it, especially in front of our fans, to please them with our game.“

– What can you already say about your semi-final opponent?

„I don’t think we’re going to look at the first opponent in particular, but we’ll definitely take a look. We have to look at ourselves at the moment, as we have problems with ourselves, let alone with our opponents. We have to go back to our things that have worked for us. I’m glad we have a little bit of room to practice and refresh some of the things we used to do automatically and now we’re missing. We’ve certainly watched the development of the group, we know how they’ve played in the group, in the Croatian league. We have the information, but we have to look at ourselves first of all.“

– What will be the key to achieving your goals and ambitions?

„The key will be to deliver mainly on what we agree and to do what we have been doing. Silly mistakes must be avoided. As long as we trust the things we’ve been doing since the start of the season and they’ve been working out for us, that can make the difference. But we have to be very responsible, we can’t underestimate any situation in the game. From the first second of the first game, to the last second of the second game, we have to play to our full potential and there is no reason to spare ourselves.“