Svetislav Pesic unhappy despite Serbia’s win

Aug 30, 2025 3:08 PM

After Serbia’s narrow win over Portugal, coach Svetislav Pesic did not hold back in his critique of the team, even with a 2-0 start in the tournament.

“Everybody saw the game. I think if you don’t have enough focus, you cannot play our game. We were not ready to play tonight for different reasons, maybe too much talk about the next game against Latvia,” Pesic stated bluntly, emphasizing that distractions can undermine performance.

The veteran coach made it clear that high standards remain non-negotiable.

“I hope this is the last time that we play like tonight. This is not the Serbian national team; the Serbian national team doesn’t have to win all the games, but our rating tonight was totally opposite compared to our first game in the tournament against Estonia. It’s very difficult; there are big expectations, of course. We cannot expect that everybody will always play like we did in the previous preparation or official games. We have enough intelligence to learn from this game. The most important of course, is that nobody says anything if we win the game, but we don’t want to only win the game. We want to see ourselves improving from game to game. We have big expectations of ourselves. We must show more intelligence, more focus, to be ready for the EuroBasket. We have respect for everybody, but we have to respect ourselves.”

Veteran guard Marko Guduric agreed, acknowledging the challenge Portugal presented but underscoring the need for higher readiness: “Nothing much to add, just to give credit to Portugal for playing tough and physical, but we have to be better, more ready, and we will be.”

Pesic also addressed the controversial ejection of Filip Petrusev for hitting an opponent early in the game.

“I only comment on basketball matters. And that was not basketball – it was a matter of discipline! First and foremost, a matter of respect for his team and his teammates. A Serbian national team player cannot allow that while I’m the coach. It’s forbidden. I will forgive him, because such things can happen, but a Serbian national team player must not create incidents like that. We hope Filip has learned something from this. And that he will learn.”

Even after victory, Pesic’s message was clear: winning alone is not enough – focus, discipline, and continuous improvement are the non-negotiable pillars for Serbia in EuroBasket 2025.