Sweet European nights are back for Bertram. Against Benfica for the poker of successes in the Champions League: the words of Squarcina
La Basketball Champions League has so far only given joy to the Bertram Derthona. One of only four teams still undefeated in the panorama of the 32 participants in the main FIBA club competition and alone in first place in its group at the end of the first leg with three wins out of three, ahead of two opponents who are doing very well in their championship such as Manresa (4 points in the group), fifth force in Spain, and Chemnitz (2), leader in the Bundesliga, facing each other in tonight's challenge. Instead there will be tomorrow at 20: 30 al PalaEnergica Paolo Ferraris of Casale Monferrato the resumption of the European campaign of Tortona, awaited by first round return of the Group G against the same opponents with whom the first leg ended, the Portuguese Benfica, beaten 72-58 two weeks ago in Lisbon.
With another win, the quintet coached by Walter De Raffaele would mathematically qualify for the Play-In with two rounds to spare, which the second and third-placed teams access at the end of the six days of the first phase. But the goal is another, direct qualification to the groups of the second, a privilege that is granted only to the first in the standings. Furthermore, the fourth consecutive victory in Europe would restart the race for Severini and his teammates after the double stop in the championship in the away games in Emilia against Virtus Bologna and Reggio Emilia, which blocked a run of 7 wins in the first 8 games of the season between Serie A and the Champions League.
Three-time defending champion of Portugal and current undefeated leader in their homeland after four matchdays, Benfica, led by veteran ex-Trento player Beto Gomes, is bottom of the Champions League group without any wins to its name: in addition to the defeat against Tortona, it lost by 28 points both in Manresa (92-64) and in Chemnitz (103-75).
STATEMENTS “Winning against Benfica would mathematically mean entering the top three, but we will need to make more efforts afterwards because the objective is to avoid the Play-In”, says the Juventus assistant coach Iacopo Squarcina. "The real difference in this sense will obviously be made by the away games that we haven't faced so far, two teams like Chemnitz and Manresa await us in decidedly difficult matches, even within a very busy match calendar. That will be the biggest difficulty, managing to have the same approach we've had so far in the Champions League even on decidedly hot pitches. Manresa, for example, is truly a fortress, just look at its latest results at home, it gave 100 points to the first in the Spanish league (Malaga, ed.) which is perhaps the most competitive in Europe. Likewise, there were more than three thousand spectators at Chemnitz's home debut in the Bundesliga, so the Germans also have a warm pitch. Compared to the first leg in Lisbon - keep it going - we are going to face a team that has recovered all the injured players that they have had the opportunity to train with. They recently won a good match against Porto, which is the other top team in Portugal, so they are gaining confidence. We will have to be good at not letting the talent of their foreigners shine, especially the power forward Tyler Stone, and not to be surprised by the aggression of their little ones, who in Lisbon got their hands on us and it took us a while to understand how to respond appropriately”.
BRESCIA After the match against Benfica, next Sunday it will be Serie A again at PalaEnergica. At 17:30 there is the clash with Germani Brescia, direct competitor in the play-off zone, the last match before the break for the national commitments.
