The battle of the hurt ones: Fenerbahce Beko – Armani Milano
In Round 21 of Turkish Airlines Euroleague, Fenerbahce and Armani Milano will face each other in Instabul, in a huge game that will attract all basketball fans ‘eyes. In their last meeting, Milano defended their home ground and won 87-74, thanks to a nice performance from Sergio Rodriguez, who ended with 22 points and 5 rebounds.
After a six-game winning run, Fenerbahce was brought back to Earth by Barcelona in their last game. They won 3 Euroleague games and 3 TBL’s games before this clash and everybody expected to see a nice performance at home against Mirotic and co. But, after the first quarter, all hopes almost disappeared for their fans, which Barcelona winning it by 12 points, 24-12. Despite a nice recovery in the second quarter, the Spanish team maintained the level until the final seconds and secured an 80-74 win. Fenerbahce committed 17 turnovers, almost double more than the visitors, while their 3-point shooting was bad, finishing with 30% shots made. The main contributors were: Kostas Sloukas (14 points and 11 assists), Nikola Kalinic (12 points) and Nando De Colo (12 points). The only absentee for Coach Obradovic is Ahmet Duverioglu.
Milano passes through a bad period, losing 6 of the last 10 games, including last 3 games in a row, when they lost twice in Euroleague against Maccabi Tel Aviv and Anadolu Efes, while in the Italian League they lost against Brescia, all games away. In the game against Brescia, the team looked a little bit too tired after two games away in Turkey and Israel. With Sergio Rodriguez and Luis Scola rested, they recorded only 11 assists and lost the game 78-72, despite being made 20 offensive rebounds. At the halftime, they had a 5 points lead, but in third-quarter Brescia took the control of the game and had a 5 points lead, before the last part. Milano was able to take the lead again, but in the end, Brescia came out victorious thanks to the free-throws shots made in the last minute. The main scorers for Milano were: Keifer Sykes (19 points), Vladimir Micov (12 points and 4 rebounds) and Kaleb Tarczweski (9 points and 11 rebounds). Jeff Brooks and Ricardo Moraschini are out for this game.
Both teams are hurt before this game, which gave us hope for an excellent and entertaining game here. Fenerbahce played very well lately and I expect a win for them because they play at home in front of their fans and they need to take this important win to move over the last defeat suffered against Barcelona. They need to show that their roster is stronger and play like a team.
Photo: Euroleague
Bogdan Vasile Tirc
