On the sixth matchday of the Top 16, Milan was defeated by Barcelona 80-70 (seventh knockout out of eight European away games), but the final score of the Palau Blaugrana was too severe and did not give credit to Banchi's team. In fact, the ten points gap does not reflect the progress of a match which saw EA7 manage to stay ahead for three quarters of the match, before suffering the foreseeable and perhaps inevitable overtaking and extension of the home team in the last quarter. played almost perfectly by the Catalans (31 points with 6/8 from three).
Milan, even if it is clear that it still lacks something to triumph at these levels, has nonetheless demonstrated in this Euroleague that it can compete against the strongest opponents, such as Barcelona, one of the teams pretending to the final victory, still unbeaten in this group and already capable of clearing the fields of the two Greeks and Fenerbahce, and who moreover, like EA7, came to this challenge with the anger of making up for the defeat in the national cup, suffered at the last second at the hands of rivals Real Madrid. For Milan, in fact, this was certainly not the easiest match to try to put the terrible disappointment of the Italian Cup behind them with the relative harsh protest (later returned) from their fans during the week.
But looking at the situation in the Euroleague group, where EA7 has a record of 3 wins and 3 losses, the match for the next round at home against Malaga is fundamental (even if the 7 return games are still to go) (at the moment paired in Milan, like Panathinaikos), in view of always receiving the Greeks at the Forum the following week. Two wins, the one against the Spaniards would be essential, would put Olimpia with great prospects of progressing through the group, but it's still a long way and making calculations now would be preventive.
First, however, Banchi's team must think about diving back into the championship, where they are in command with Brindisi and the next match is on Monday in Pistoia. Treacherous match, but from here on out the obligation for Milan will be to consolidate the first position and appear in the playoffs as number one, aware that until they give the Scudetto to their fans, that cursed Cup will always be in their thoughts Italy that Sassari will show in front of its supporters on Sunday before the match against Cremona, in what will be a veritable sporting celebration for an entire region.
