Barça receives a downcast Partizán grown
BARCELONA, Nov. 21 (EUROPA PRESS) –
Barça hosts Partizán Belgrade this Tuesday at the Palau Blaugrana (8:45 p.m.) on matchday 9 of the Regular Phase of the Euroleague, a duel that the blaugranas arrive after losing in Europe and in the Endesa League and in which they will meet some Serbs in a state of grace and with only one less victory in the table.
What might seem like a peaceful visit when looking at the new calendar has turned into a ‘trap’ duel. Barça comes from losing the Catalan derby against ‘Penya’ last weekend in Badalona (82-79), and from conceding a tough defeat on the last day of the Euroleague at the Anadolu Efes Istanbul court (96- 86).
Bad moment that Barça is going through, although every moment is ideal to turn the tortilla around. Sarunas Jasikevicius’ men had come from linking three victories in a row in the continental competition, and recovering that path is a stone’s throw away, and at the Palau.
With 5-3 in the table, in fifth position, Barça can change these bad feelings if they beat a Partizán that has not been measured since 2013. So, in the last precedent of February 2010, Barça won, just like the four previous duels. So Partizan was a propitious victim.
Now, however, it may be different. With the historic Zeljko Obradovic on the bench and the ex-Blaugrana Dante Exum in their ranks (being one of the team’s top scorers) this Partizan is ‘really hot’. In fact, he comes to Barcelona with four victories in his last five Euroleague rounds.
The Australian, in fact, scored 21 points, the same as Zach Leday, in the important 96-88 victory against Maccabi Tel Aviv. Both are the great danger for Partizán, which arrives with high spirits and ready to challenge a Barça that needs to meet again before it is too late.
And it is that the defeat on the court of the current double champion, an Anadolu Efes who arrived at a bad time and woke up just before Barça, did damage on a moral level. The 28 points from Nicolás Laprovittola were not enough in a three-point duel that fell to the Turkish side. The Argentine, in great shape, needs more teammates to join the bandwagon to bring down this grown Partizán.
BARÇA: Laprovittola, Satoransky, Kalinic, Tobey and Sanli –possible starting five–; Da Silva, Paulí, Vesely, Abrines, Higgins, Nnaji and Jokubaitis.
PARTIZAN MOZZART BET BELGRADE: Madar, Nunnally, Papapetrou, Leday y Lessort –posible quinteto inicial–; Vukcevic, Punter, Smailagic, Exum, Glas, Trifunovic y Andjusic.
–REFEREES: Latisevs, Difallah and Silva.
–HALL: Palau Blaugrana.
