Fortitudo Bologna hosting Olimpia Milano in search for a win
In Round 9 of Seria A, Olimpia Milano will travel to Bologna to meet Fortitudo in an interesting and full of history game. At the beginning of the century, those teams had some great battles, but in 2009 the rivalry ended with Fortitudo’s relegation. Now they are back and ready to fight for their old glory and this match against Olimpia is the perfect chance to show everybody what they are capable of.
Fortitudo added several players during the summer, many of them with huge experience in Seria A like Maarty Leunen or Rok Stipcevic, both with more than 8 seasons played in the competition. Until now, they have 4 wins and 4 defeats, but they are on a 2 defeats-streak, against Brescia and Cremona in the last round. In the loss against Cremona (80-73) they had a lot of turnovers which allowed their opponent to have more shots attempts and win the game, despite a good display from the field for Fortitudo. The main scorers were Pietro Aradori (19 points and 5 rebounds), Henry Sims (18 points and 3 rebounds) and Matteo Fantinelli (12 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists). They need to take care more of the ball if they want to make a surprise against Milano.
The seven games winning-streak come to an end in Moscow, after Milano lost the game against Khimki 87-79. They were in a very good form lately, but they were stopped by Alexey Shved and Jonas Jerebko with very good performances. What drags down the Italians in this game was the shooting percentage from inside the arc. They only scored 43% of their shots, compared with 61% from Khimki. They played very well, on both ends, but they need to pay more attention to their shots. The main contributors were Luis Scola (16 points and 8 rebounds), Michael Roll (14 points) and Nemanja Nedovic (13 points and 7 assists), who seems to be back at his top form.
The game will be tough, with a full PalaDozza Arena that will bring a lot of energy for Bologna’s players. Milano has by far the best roster and rotation and will win this game, but I expect a huge fight from Fortitudo for every ball. After 10 years of waiting, Fortitudo’s fans need a big win against Milano. Let’s see if their team can make a surprise here.
Photo: Euroleague.net
Bogdan Vasile Tirc
