Completing the FIBA Champions League Group F as the leader and making it to the last 16, TOFAŞ came 2nd in the group with 4 wins and 2 losses.
Matching with the Spanish representative Lenovo Tenerife in the draw, TOFAŞ wants to leave the fight with an advantageous score by going to the quarter-finals first match on Wednesday, April 6th.
Only TOFAŞ continues on its way in the organization attended by Pınar Karşıyaka, Darüşşafaka Tekfen, Türk Telekom and Galatasaray Nef teams from Turkey.
Frutti Extra Bursaspor, on the other hand, secured 8 wins and 9 losses out of 17 games played in ULEB European Cup Group B and guaranteed to stay in the last 16.
The green-white team will complete the group matches with the match they will play with the Montenegrin representative Buducnost VOLI tomorrow.
Frutti Extra Bursaspor will have finished the group in 5th place if they win the game with a margin of 2 or more points.
Frutti Extra Bursaspor, which won the last 4 matches in the ULEB European Cup, wants to win the Buducnost VOLI match and complete the group in the 5th place and enter the last 16 with morale.
“The point we have reached is pleasing, but let’s get ahead”
TOFAŞ General Manager Tolga Öngören said that the importance of the Champions League organization has increased in the last 2 years.
Öngören stated that last year they were in the last 16 in the organization and this year they were in the last 8, and stated that they had a good season in general.
Öngören emphasized that the point reached is exciting.
“The organization started with 5 Turkish teams. At the moment, only TOFAŞ remains. There is always better, it can be done better. I wonder if we can bring the Final-Four to our country and our club for the first time this year? We will look at it. The point we have reached is pleasing, but let it go further. We will continue to do this this year,” he said. We can do it and we can do it next year. One of TOFAŞ’s goals is to bring the Champions League trophy to Bursa, Turkey, in the process.”
“As a club, we are very hopeful and excited”
Öngören stated that there are no sick or injured players.
“We are actually a team that fits very well with Tenerife. When we look at talent and depth, we have 7 foreigners in our Champions League squad, so we don’t have any shortcomings in that regard. Tenerife has the field advantage and experience at this level of the league. Pınar Karşıyaka was defeated at the last minute. More Ludwigsburg had beaten Tenerife both on the field and away. Tenerife is not a team that cannot be eliminated or defeated. As a club, we are very hopeful and excited. ?”
Öngören stated that they want to both rise above the previous year and create new faces every year, expressing that Emre Tanışan, who came out of their infrastructure, has risen and has become the portrait of TOFAŞ.
Öngören emphasized that they will push their final-Four chances to the end.
“It will be a difficult and colorful level. Basketball fans from Bursa should watch one of the most important teams in Europe here. I see the first match as important. The first matches are critical in the play-off matches. Anything can happen there. Both in our favor and against us. If we can win in the first match, The whole form of the series can be connected in Bursa.”
Sezer Sezgin: I think we are successful
Frrutti Extra Bursaspor Club President Sezer Sezgin said that the basketball team has been competing in the Super League for 3 years and in the ULEB European Cup for the last 2 seasons.
Sezer reminded that they are a new club.
“In the second year of the ULEB European Cup, we made it to the last 16 by showing an example of success. We have a possibility to finish the league 5th with the match to be played on Tuesday. We had a good season. I think we were successful. We are one of the teams established with the most affordable budget of the season. Domestic and foreign player budget of the season. We are one of the lowest 5 teams.”
“I hope Bursa will continue to talk about its name like this in the future”
Sezer stated that Bursa is now one of the most challenging away games of the ULEB European Cup.
“We are very strong together with our audience. The gradual end of the pandemic and the fact that the matches become playable with spectators contribute positively to the community teams like us, which draw their strength from the audience. Our form graphic has increased after our audience started to come to us and got together. “Our form graphic has increased with the success of our team. Not only we, but also the managers and coaches of the opposing team we played with. At the end of the match with the last French team, the members of the board of directors there said the same thing. Again, the coach of Valencia Basket said, “Bursa is one of the most difficult away games in Europe. Such an atmosphere. “We haven’t seen him for a long time.”
Sezer stated that they achieved their first goal in the ULEB European Cup.
“Our goal was to get to the last 16 first. Then we could pass as many laps as we could. We reached our goal in the ULEB European Cup, but now it’s time to revise our goal. Now we want to progress as much as we can.”
