The eighth day of the Euroleague was played: after the black Thursday in Milan and Cantù, luckily for Italian basketball yesterday evening the good news arrived from Siena, with the green-and-whites who obtained the pass for the Top 16 with two rounds of 'advance. In fact, Montepaschi beat the Spanish side of Unicaja Malaga 91-72, who arrived at the top of the group in this match (now joined by Maccabi) and coming off six consecutive wins, thus Siena's great moment continues, with its seventh consecutive victory counting even the championship.
Mens Sana's conquest of early qualification for the second phase of the Euroleague is even more commendable if we consider that, before these five successes in a row, Banchi's team had started this European adventure with three knockouts. For Siena, a great test of authority against an adversary that was anything but easy, a match controlled from start to finish and closed, after a comeback attempt by the Spaniards, with almost twenty points difference.
Among the Sienese ranks, in a bad evening for the best scorer Bobby Brown, in the end no less than five players in double figures, with the surprising Serbian point guard Rasic scoring ten points. For the Italian champions excellent performance by the usual Moss and Kangur, in addition to the constant growth of Sanikidze and the discovery game after game of new important resources, all factors that should start to scare their rivals also in the championship, where, after the defeat at the Forum with Milan, there have been three successes in the last three meetings.
The pains for our basketball, on the other hand, had arrived the night before, with the heavy defeats of Cantù, now almost out, and of Milan. Trinchieri's team suffered a setback (77-53) in Russia against Khimki, the third consecutive misstep in Europe, and now the hopes of progressing through the group are reduced to a flicker. A little light that however was revived last night, after the defeat of Fenerbahce on the Real Madrid field, the first arithmetic condition that still kept the Brianzas alive.
In fact, at this point, Mapooro, last in the group with a record of six losses and two wins (like Olimpija Ljubljana, but the Slovenians have the double direct clash on their side), to pass will need to beat Desio in the next round Real Madrid leaders and already qualified and hope for another defeat of Fenerbahce, who will be engaged in Greece against Panathinaikos and finds himself with a record of 4 won and 4 lost. If these two results were to happen, then Cantù would go all out in the play-off of the last round in Turkey at Pianigiani's Fenerbahce, against whom a victory by even just one point would be "enough", given that in the match In the first leg, the Canturini prevailed with a clear 82-58.
For the blue-and-whites, therefore, there is still a small hope of reaching the Top 16, but to achieve the feat in Istanbul, a very different performance will be needed from the disastrous one of the other night, where we saw a soft and always in difficulty, with limited physical and technical resources, also due, it must be said, to the absences of long-term patients Scekic and Smith.
On the other hand, Milan could already have been qualified as Siena, if it hadn't committed suicide in Vitoria on the Caja Laboral field, in its second victory in this Euroleague, again against Olimpia. EA7 managed to squander a 17-point lead in a two-faced match in which Milan went up 14 points at half-time, only to waste everything in the second half in which they only scored 20 points ( with a tremendous 6/25 from the field and even 1/13 from 2) and suffered the mockery of the Basques with a basket 4" from the siren for the final 64-62.
Milan has thus thrown away the first opportunity to qualify, in fact by winning the other night the passage of the group would have been mathematical with two rounds to spare, while now they will have to avoid getting paired with the Spaniards since they would be eliminated due to the direct clashes. Olimpia, which is currently in fourth place with three wins and five defeats, will have to try to get the necessary points in the last two days, next week at home against Zalgiris or in the last round in Greece on the parquet of the Olympiakos, paired in the lead and both already qualified. For EA7 probably even a single success could be enough, provided that at least it would keep the Croatians of Cedevita behind in the standings (2 wins and 6 losses, but above all down 0-2 in the double challenge with Milan), hoping that Caja Laboral will not win his two games with Efes and Cedevita.
So Olimpia, unlike Cantù, has its European destiny in its hands, but if it wants to move forward in this competition it must decide to become a truly great team and put an end to the too many ups and downs of this first part of the season more problematic than expected.
