Barça lives another European test against Armani Milano
MADRID, 27 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Barça will try this Friday at the Palau Blaugrana (8:30 p.m.) to return to the path of victory in the 2022-2023 Euroleague Regular Phase, although they will have a tough direct rival in the form of the Italian EA7 Emporio Armani Milano.
Sarunas Jasikevicius’s team continues without getting off to a flying start this season and has already accumulated four defeats, the last of them at the Zalgirio Arena in Kaunas, where they were unable to beat a Lithuanian Zalgiris that slowed their growth supported by four consecutive wins.
The Blaugranas were left with a balance of 2-2 and out of the top eight, but they will try to become strong again in their fiefdom against a rival that has started the competition better and who was not able to win last year in any of their two matches.
Both matches were even, just like the ‘Final Four’ of the 2020-2021 season and with the defenses prevailing over the attacks, a usual trend between these two teams, indicated as contenders to be among the eight best.
At the moment, Barça is not among them after their stumble in Lithuania, which they will want to compensate for as soon as possible in the warmth of their fans, against whom they returned last Sunday to winning ways against Lenovo Tenerife (67 -65), one more sign that he is not yet at a good offensive level.
Nicolás Laprovittola was once again the best against the Tenerife team (25 points), but the Argentine point guard needed a little more support from other players such as the Jan Vesely-Tomas Satoransky couple, and the forced resurrection of a Corey Higgins who still does not have his level of yesteryear.
In this sense, the good news for Sarunas Jasikevicius is that he could count on forward Alex Abrines, who suffered a blow to the head against Zalgiris and did not play against Lenovo Tenerife, to strengthen an outside line that will continue, for the time being, with the loss of Kyle Kuric. Nikola Mirotic and Sergio Martínez complete the infirmary and somewhat reduce the rotation of the Blaugrana coach.
For its part, the Armani Milano will be presented in Barcelona with a balance of 3-1 in this Regular Phase. The team from Lombardy has started well this Regular Phase where they have experienced four games with tight scores and where they only knelt in the Forum Mediolanum against the surprising German ALBA Berlin, after an extension.
The Italian team goes to the Palau with two old acquaintances of the fans such as the Americans Brandon Davies, who left this summer, and Deshaun Thomas, and the Canadian point guard Kevin Pangos, new faces of Ettore Messina’s team, who will have the significant loss of Shavon Shields, his best man so far, but the good news of the return of Luigi Datome, one of the key players along with Niccolò Melli.
BARÇA: Satoransky, Laprovittola, Kalinic, Tobey and Sanli –possible starting five–, Vesely, Da Silva, Abrines, Jokubaitis, Higgins, Paulí and Nnaji.
ARMANI MILANO: Pangos, Hall, Datome, Melli and Hines –possible starting five– Thomas, Baron, Ricci, Voigtmann, Davies, Biligha and Tonut.
–REFEREES: Belosevic, Javor and Bissang.
–PAVILLION: Palau Blaugrana.
–TIME: 20.30/DAZN.
