"Absheron Lions" head coach Erhan Toker: We were happy to qualify for the group stage

Azerbaijan's "Absheron Lions" basketball club will try to compete well in the main stage of the European Cup. Sport24.az reports that this was stated to "Report" by the team's head coach Erhan Toker.

The Turkish specialist spoke about the return match of the first qualifying round they lost to "Anorthosis" in Cyprus: "We played very badly in that match. We were weak in defense and attack. I would even say that the week was not good. We were ahead by 30 points in the first match, but it dropped to 16 points. I hoped that this would not be necessary in the return match. As I said before, it was a very bad week."

Toker also spoke about the loss in the squad: "Orelik Gediminas is injured. James Fraizer's father is seriously ill and the player could not fully focus on training and matches. All these were against us."

He also touched upon the fact that despite the defeat, they qualified for the main stage of the tournament: "The only thing that made us happy was that, according to the regulations ("lucky-loser"), we got the right to play in the group stage as the team that lost with the best difference. We want to compete well in the group. For this, we must work very seriously on our mistakes."

It should be noted that "Absheron Lions" will face Latvia's "Kalev", Poland's "Trefl Sopot" and Azerbaijan's "Neftchi" in Group I of the main stage.