Žakelj: We were too soft, toughness and desire must be present

There is one more round left until the end of the Top 8 phase of the AdmiralBet ABA League, but it is already known that the basketball players of Budućnost Voli will enter the quarterfinals in fourth place.

The "Blues" lost to Dubai last night in Sarajevo (89:78), and in the quarterfinals they will play against Romanian Cluj, which they will visit on Sunday (17) in the last round of this part of the competition.

"Congratulations to the host team on a well-deserved victory. In two or three moments we played aggressive and good defense from which we got easy points, but other than that we were too soft. That is the main reason for the defeat. Dubai was slow to get points at some moments. Toughness and desire must be present in every game," said Budućnost coach Andrej Žakelj after yesterday's match.

Dubai was better throughout the match, according to the "blues" coach.

"Dubai is physically bigger with better individuals, but everything can be compensated for with fight, desire and aggression. We achieved that on a couple of occasions, but they were better throughout the match. These are things we need to work on if we want to play against such teams," concluded Andrej Žakelj.