The only game of the round in EuroLeague
Unfortunately, the new Covid variant reached Europe and EuroLeague was forced to suspend almost all games from Round 19, as most teams don’t have a minimum of eight players available to play.
The only game that “survived” and is supposed to be played as it was initially scheduled is the one between AX Armani Milan and Zenit Saint Petersburg, scheduled for Friday evening in the Mediolanum Forum in Milan.
The Italian team was hit hard by Covid and didn’t play an official game since the 19th of December until yesterday when they hosted Virtus Bologna in the Italian derby. The forced break didn’t seem to affect the Reds too much, as they played well and defeated their biggest Serie A rival in an overtime thriller. Jerian Grant led the team in scoring with 20 points and hopefully, he can carry this momentum to the EuroLeague as well, where the American guard averages just 1.8 points per game this season. Devon Hall was also impressed in yesterday’s game scoring 18 points, while Sergio Rodriguez was great as usual, scoring 16 points and dishing 9 assists. However there are only two days to recover for the game against Zenit and some of the most important players of Milan are still missing, so there is still plenty of reason for Ettore Messina to be concerned.
Zenit comes to Milan having won its last four EuroLeague games, including two dramatic wins against Maccabi and Crvena Zvezda (in overtime). However, Xavi Pascual’s team had some difficulties lately in the VTB League, where they lost two of their last three games, the last one just two days ago against Parma Perm.
Armani Olimpia Milan and Zenit Sankt-Petersburg are two of the best teams in Europe, but we probably won’t see the best version of them tomorrow. Anyway, this is the only game of the round, so we have to enjoy it!
Imre Halasz
Image: Euroleague
