Bertram in Patras to keep the race for the Champions League quarter-finals even more alive. Squarcina's words
A “back-to-back” to continue the work started a week ago against their opponent. After the first leg home game won with the widest margin of the entire season (97-77), tomorrow at 18:30 Italian time (19:30 local time) Bertram Derthona Tortona will challenge Promitheas Patrasso Vikos Cola again for the fourth day of Group I of the Basketball Champions League Top 16, which has reached the first round of the return leg. It is the third trip of the season to Greece, after the previous games with Peristeri and AEK Athens, for coach Walter De Raffaele's team, expected at the Dimitris Tofalos Arena to continue the first success in the second phase of the main European club cup of FIBA. Derthona left for the seaside city in the north-west of the Peloponnese reinvigorated by the series of victories obtained against Trento, the same Patras and with the daring challenge of last Sunday against Varese that gave renewed enthusiasm to the entire environment. The objective is to stay in touch with the first two places in the standings that give access to the next phase, currently occupied by the undefeated leaders AEK with 6 points and by Wurzburg with 4, direct opponents in the match that will be played today at 18:30 on the pitch of the Greeks, already winners in the first leg in Germany.
PATRAS Bottom of the group at the end of the first leg with zero wins, the team coached by Ilias Papatheodorou is at the last resort to try to stay in the game. Last Saturday, former Pistoia player Jordon Varnado and his teammates ended their negative streak of five league games and three Champions League games with the direct clash in their homeland against PAOK Salonicco. A home victory of 87-76 in front of two thousand spectators with 16 points + 7 assists from the usual leader Jordan Walker, a victory that brought Patras to join PAOK in the standings with 18 points (9-11 the balance) in sixth place, in reality seventh due to the unfavorable direct clash.
WHERE TO SEE IT ON TV The race will be broadcast live on DAZN.
STATEMENTS “In the first leg it was an excellent performance from our side, interpreted by the players in a serious and optimal way and with a real contribution from everyone”, is the beginning of the assistant coach's commentary on the eve Iacopo Squarcina. “It will be a completely different game in Greece, the trip itself is always quite conditioning, especially in a series of games so close together. Then there will be a different emotional push from Patras, their desire to take revenge, to not be the type of team seen in Casale. What we must repeat is the issue of the physical impact shown almost immediately in the first leg, being able to control the pace of the game, command the tempo instead of leaving it in the hands of inertia. It will once again be crucial to limit their scorers, first and foremost Jordan Walker whose qualities we have all seen, and, considering that they are a tactical team, to be able to immediately interpret the choices of their coach who has many different options”.
