EA7 Milano's away match for today's decisive match at 19pm at Cedevita Zagreb got off to a worse start. In fact, the already difficult situation was complicated by the fallout from Alessandro Gentile's injury, who in the he last training session before leaving for Croatia was blocked again by a problem with his left adductor.
Identical injury that happened to him before the match against Efes and which had kept him off the field for the last two weeks, a problem which will now force him to stay out until the new year, given that his return should be expected for the commitment championship on January 3 against Sassari. Thus ends the great (at least on a personal level) 2015 of the Olimpia captain, who returned to the field last Sunday in the defeat in Reggio Emilia (but in which he was immediately the top scorer of the match with 18 points) precisely in anticipation of the fundamental commitment in the Euroleague.
If the road was already uphill before, now without the number 5 the chances of accomplishing the feat decrease drastically, given that in order to qualify, Olimpia is forced to clear the Zagreb parquet with at least ten points to overturn the knockout in the first leg, then hoping that in the last round the Spanish side of Laboral Kutxa will do their duty at home against Cedevita, taking Milan's success at the Forum against Limoges for granted. EA7's European future which will therefore be decided in a few hours, a success against the Croatians in itself would certainly not be impossible, but the 9 points from the first leg at the moment seem like a boulder, for sure the continuation of the season could depend on this match with this shirt of some players in the balance. Players who tonight, without Gentile (but with Macvan also returning to Europe), are called to give answers, as happened against Efes, when they showed they have important qualities, but who have emerged in these first few months too fluctuating.
Meanwhile, the first six matches of this penultimate day of the first phase of the Euroleague were played yesterday, among which the external strike by Lokomotiv Kuban on the Pinar Karsiyaka field stands out, with the Russians taking the lead in the group against Barcelona, while the Turkish champions who had surprised everyone by winning the title at home last June failed to have any luck in their first participation at this level, and Maccabi's clear victory at home against the already qualified Bamberg, a success which however probably will not will serve to save the Israelis from a premature and clamorous elimination, since in the last round they will be forced to clear the field of Darussafaka with more than 11 points of difference (and if the Turks already today were to do the feat on the field of CSKA the speech instead it would already be closed, but this is unlikely).
In the Milan group, Efes had the better of Laboral Kutxa at home, while Olympiakos achieved the eighth success out of 9 on the Limoges field, in group C, a home but painless faux pas by Barcelona, surprised by Zalgiris Kaunas , while the first joy has not yet arrived for Sassari, who at home against Malaga made up for the ninth knockout in a row and now only has the away match in Germany with Bamberg to try to remove the zero from the box of victories in his bad adventure in the Euroleague.
Dinamo who tried again this time, but who had also returned from the heavy home defeat in the league against Trento, another proof that, if before the merit of the trophies of the last two years was certainly not only Meo Sacchetti, the fault of this uncertain start of the season was not to be attributed to the former coach, but more simply that this team has done something wonderful in recent years, perhaps even beyond its potential and that there is a possibility that it can finish last in a Euroleague group with opponents such as CSKA, Málaga and Maccabi. It's not a tragedy, just look at Milan which has far superior economic resources, and the real surprise would be not finding Logan and his teammates battling in the playoffs in June.
Among today's matches, said of the match in Milan, group A is the master, the most intricate and exciting group of the four, with only Fenerbahce first and already qualified and the other five formations all incredibly fighting for the remaining three places available (Khimky, Bayern and Red Star are currently on a 4-4 record and Real Madrid and Strasbourg are one win away). Three matches are scheduled, with Fenerbahce hosting Red Star, Khimky, who seemed safe up until a few weeks ago and who are now visiting Strasbourg to try to close the case before the last day, and finally the most awaited match, that of the reigning champions Real Madrid on the parquet of Bayern Munich. Spaniards forced to win to avoid the defeat of elimination and who will then have an easy closure at home against Strasbourg, while the other matches of the last round will be Khimky-Fenerbahce and the Red Star-Bayern intersection.
Instead, Panathinaikos-Zielona Gora completes today's day, with the Greeks, fourth with two victories ahead of the Poles (who, however, prevailed in the first leg with a difference of +3), who should easily snatch the pass for the Top 16 with a success to avoid clamorously postponing everything to the last round, on paper, among other things, in favor of Zielona.
But waiting to see what Milan will combine, we need to celebrate the two historic passages to the Last 32 of the Eurocup in Reggio Emilia and Venice. Grissin Bon obtained the decisive points on the Le Mans field and now in the last round she will be able to play for first place in the direct clash with Gran Canaria, while for Venice the defeat against Valencia (reaching 18 victories out of 18 between the Spanish league and Europa) was painless, given that qualification had arrived the day before thanks to a misstep by Spirou Charleroi. Reyer will fight for second place against Zaragoza, while Trento is no longer news, already qualified for some time, who by beating Bonn in extra time remain paired in the lead with Bilbao and next week will go to visit the Spaniards. Another defeat in Brindisi, this time against Ludwigsburg, but the Apulian team has abandoned this competition for some time, also due to various injuries, which have only now recovered.
The note of color of this last round of the Eurocup came from the Galatasaray field, but not due to the home team's huge success against Volgograd, but because the first basket arrived from Dmitry Gerasimenko, the eccentric Russian tycoon from a month owner of Cantù, but still registered for the Krasny Oktyabr (Red October) of Volgograd, a club he founded and of which he was owner and president until recently. Now his economic efforts, starting from reinforcing the squad and later, perhaps, from finally building a new arena, should all be concentrated on the Brianzola club, but Gerasimenko, a certainly extravagant character (and from his first appearances on the sidelines in Cantù this has already been noted), 37 years and 199 cm. for 100 kg, he wanted to try again to take the field in his former team, abandoned and sadly last in the group. Yes, because this Ukrainian-born steel industrialist had already done it last year, in February he made his debut in an official European match on the Cedevita Zagreb field, again in the Eurocup (in addition to an appearance in the Vtb League even against CSKA). Then his team had won, but he had "played" only 5 anonymous minutes, with a rebound, a turnover and two fouls, this time he was on the court for a good 33 minutes, scoring 2 points (those of 33- 25, eventually going 103-76), 1-of-3 shooting, 4 rebounds, 3 turnovers and 4 fouls. Always a little, but compared to the last time there have been improvements culminating in his career high (2 points!), now, after seeing this one that we were missing, it will be better for Gerasimov to start keeping the promises made to the people of Cantù , a fan base that has seen its team stationed in positions too far from its history for too long.
