Olimpia Milano's Euroleague stops in Istanbul, this time for real. think about itEfes to definitively put an end to all illusions and ambitions of the Italian team, surpassing it 86-78 and excluding it from any qualifying speech.
Now it's official, but what had to happen for a different outcome bordered on the impossible, especially after Vitoria had beaten a not too warlike Fenerbahce on Thursday evening, forcing Milan to have to win by as much as 11 points and then hope on the last day to receive a compliant CSKA and in the missteps of Efes in the derby against Fenerbahce and of Laboral in Malaga. Instead it went as it should have, perhaps saving the red and white fans another week of vain hopes, with an elimination unfortunately deserved, but which comes from afar and certainly not because of the last defeat.
And to think that on Friday the first part of the feat seemed to be able to materialize for real, with a very strong start and the fateful +11 already arrived in the first quarter, even +15 at the beginning of the second, but with the Turks closing the gap at the interval at six lengths. Back on the parquetEA7 however he proudly did not stop believing in it and touched the 12-point lead again, but in the end of the third period the home team recovered and, led by Heurtel, overtook, with Hackett and his companions who in the last fraction gave up by blow, as happened too many times during this European season.
It therefore ends with a further regret, which adds up to that of the previous week, when Milan had sensationally come one step away from overturning the -19 of the first leg against Vitoria (which would have given a few more chances in view of the last two rounds ), a success which, together with other performances in the second round, nonetheless gave EA7 a better image than the one shown in the first part of these Top 16.
Milan, in fact, probably didn't have a team from the top eight in Europe this year (due to some unsuccessful bets, but also serious faults in the choice of some players and in general in building a roster for these levels), but the fact that we got to gamble until the penultimate day can't help but make us rethink the horrible first leg that conditioned the whole journey and the fact that it didn't take much, one above all the home knockout against Nizhny Novgorod , to concretely try to reach the playoffs also in this edition.
