First European away game of the season for Bertram: tomorrow in Lisbon with Benfica the first leg of the Champions League will end. Squarcina's words
Reinvigorated by the winning blitz in Trapani, the Bertram Derthona is ready for the first European trip of the season. Destination Lisbon, where tomorrow at 21 hours: Italian 30 faces the Pavilhão Fidelidade the hosts of Benfica to close the first leg of Group G of the Basketball Champions League. After home victories against Chemnitz Niners and BAXI Manresa, the lone league leaders coached by Walter De Raffaele are reeling from a reversal against the Portuguese, making their home debut after two clear away defeats in Manresa (92-64) and Chemnitz (103-75) that left them alone at the bottom of the group of four. The most successful club in Portugal with its 30 national titles, including the last 3 consecutive, and reached the group stage by winning the Qualification Round in Antalya, Turkey, beating the Swiss team Fribourg Olympic in the final, Benfica have so far won their two league games, both played away, against Imortal Albufeira (61-96) and last Saturday on the field of Galomar Caniço on the island of Madeira (83-87). Bertram, for its part, will be chasing its second hat trick of wins in the first three games of FIBA's top European club competition after having already achieved that in its absolute debut last year.
NURSERY He won't leave for Portugal Andrea Zerini, already absent against Trapani due to a muscular problem.
WHERE TO SEE IT ON TV The match will be streamed live on DAZN.
STATEMENTS The Juventus assistant coach is presenting the challenge Iacopo Squarcina: "It's a team that has talent especially in its American players, who know how to create first and foremost for themselves, especially the power forward Tyler Stone and the guard Marcus Thornton, already seen in Italy at Pesaro and Fortitudo Bologna, the two of them are the main guns to limit. Maybe they don't have great pace compared to the other teams but they have people with great experience like the former Trento player Beto Gomes, furthermore up to now they have never been at full strength, they have always had injury problems so much so that their best player, the point guard Ahmaad Rorie, has been out for a long time after the Qualification Round. First of all we need to understand how many will return, shooting guard Trey Drechsel has certainly returned. We will have to respond as a team to the individual impact of their individuals", continues the Turin coach, “don't make it an isolation game but a game where we set the pace, where we don't accept the first shot but build an ever better one. The fact that they're playing at home will give them the incentive to do well, they also had problems with the championship that stopped due to a visa issue, they started again last week and they did it away, so they basically never played at home and it will therefore be important to respond appropriately to this impact. It will be yet another challenge to face seriously, a really important adjective because it includes toughness, discipline, execution. We'll have to run when possible but in general manage the pace at a team level". On the fatigue of the double commitment of championship and cup, Squarcina responds as follows: "The impact on training, playing every two weeks in the Champions League, is different than in the Euroleague or the Eurocup, so it has an impact but to a lesser extent. It will have a bit more of an impact now that instead of playing at home, the European away games will begin, we will have a busy schedule also considering the postponement of the match with Bologna, it will be the first real test because we will have to face the mix of away games, multiple commitments, full weeks. We will try to be ready, this is why the team was chosen with 12 real players because we will need every single drop of sweat from all the guys".
