Agravanis: ‘We knew Papagiannis and I were scared’

Dimitris Agravanis and George Papagiannis were the catalysts during the forty minutes as the Greek national team left Istanbul victorious and defeated Turkey for the second time in three days.

However, after the game’s finale, neither of them focused on what they were doing on the floor. Instead, both praised the teamwork and the contribution of the other children on the way to victory over Turkey.

Dimitris Agravanis told the NOVA camera: “All the children put in a lot of effort in defense and attack. We were under a lot of pressure but in attack we knew we were going to score at some point. As they approached -2, the Turks showed the class of kids who have won so many things in their careers. All the kids were so determined that even with small mistakes we didn’t stop trying and we all played as a team.

Moraitis may be small but he plays with great maturity and I’m happy for him. I see an amazing improvement and it’s not easy to organize the team so well at such a young age. I hope that things will go even better in the future. In the first two matches there was a need and more nervousness, but we overcame it with our mood and energy. At first I lost a few phases of my own in attack, but the shots came from the periphery and the kids often found me free.

On defense, we know we’re scared when we’re past Papagiannis. Within days we found homogeneity. We play for our world and I think the Greeks had a lot of fun today“.

Papagiannis: “Everyone gives 100% for the National and it seems”

For his part, George Papagiannis stated: “The atmosphere was very strong. The coach had prepared us to focus on that. Turkey shot hard, but we had a plan, we supported it and we got a very important win. We knew Turkey could turn the game around, it would have been good if we kept the +16 but the point is we got the win.

Personally, I had planned to give everything to win because we don’t have many opportunities to play in the windows. But I wanted to give everything for the national team.

The mood in the team is great, everyone gives 100% for the national team to win and you can tell that, no matter who plays or not. Dimitris (ss Agravanis) also played excellently, as did Kostas (ss Sloukas), but also Dimitris (ss Moraitis) with his defence. The coach believed in the game more than anyone“.