Can Benfica shock Mornar Bar?
Thursday, 26th of September, Benfica will host Mornar Bar in the first game of the second round of qualifiers. It is expected to be a really close duel.
In the first round of qualifiers, Benfica eliminated Donar Groningen after winning the first game by a margin of 30 points (95-65). The team from the Netherlands is a pretty good one so this only means that Benfica has a strong team.
Carlos Lisboa, the coach of the Portuguese team, has some talented Americans like Toure’ Murry, Micah Downs, and Gary McGhee. Also, Betinho, originally from Cape Verde, was very good in the games against Donar Groningen.
If you don’t defend, Benfica will punish you because they can pass and shoot the three. Also, you have to box-out against them. Otherwise, they will crush the offensive rebounds (they had 50 total rebounds in the first game against Donar Groningen)
However, Mornar Bar looks better than Donar Groningen, at least on the paper. They have a star in Jacob Pullen, an ex-Barcelona player with a lot of experience. More than that, the Montenegrin team is composed of a mix of Americans and great local players like Uros Lukovic, Marko Mugosa, and Lazar Pavicevic.
That’s why I’m expecting to be two close matches between Benfica and Mornar Bar. After watching Pacicevic’s team in Cluj-Napoca I think that the solution for Benfica is to be very aggressive because that’s how you get under their skin. If the Portuguese will do this they have a big chance of qualifying into the groups.
*photo: championsleague.basketball
