Real Madrid starts its March ‘marathon’ against ASVEL
MADRID, 2 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Real Madrid visits this Friday (8:00 p.m.) the French ASVEL Villeurbanne, a team from the bottom of the Euroleague Regular Phase 2022-2203 standings and against which it hopes not to stumble to remain firm in the ‘Top 4’ for start a key month in the maximum continental competition with fury.
Last week, the Madrid team demonstrated that they had left behind the setback in the Badalona Copa del Rey with a resounding victory at the WiZink Center against Lithuanian Zalgiris Kaunas to settle in second place, still with a game pending against Turkish Anadolu Efes.
Chus Mateo’s men added their fourth consecutive victory and confirmed themselves as one of the fittest teams in this Euroleague, with a record of 8-2 in their last ten games, only surpassed by the 9-1 of the leader Olympiacos, which leads in a victory, although he has won the ‘basket-average’.
Thanks to his good regularity, the ten-time European champion has amassed a cushion of two wins over fifth, AS Monaco, and four over ninth, Valencia Basket, so with ten games to go his presence in the ‘playoffs’, the first objective, is very well on track.
In addition, Chus Mateo has had ‘rest’ days to more calmly prepare for the next calendar due to the break in the domestic leagues through the ‘FIBA windows’, although players like Walter Tavares and Gaby Deck did travel with their respective teams to try to throw a hand, with more luck for the Cape Verdean center than for the Argentine forward, who was left without a World Cup.
And it is that what is coming for the Madrid team is of maximum demand with twelve games in this month of March, with three European double days during the week, a very important one next week at home against Cazoo Baskonia and Valencia Basket, prior to the pending visit to the Sinan Erdem Arena and to receive from Armani Milano.
For this reason, coming out with the eighteenth win of the campaign and the ninth at home against an ASVEL that is penultimate in place seems vital to continue at a good pace. The French team, which they beat in Madrid with solvency (92-73), has done well historically, with only one defeat in nine games, in 2003, and without ever losing at the Astroballe de Lyon.
The team coached by TJ Parker and chaired by Tony Parker has accumulated four consecutive defeats, but in their arena they tend to be much more competitive and in fact they have been able to beat Olympiacos, Fenerbahce and Baskonia there, and they demanded a lot from Barça and the Efes, so the ten-time European champion must have maximum concentration against an opponent that depends a lot on Nando de Colo’s points.
“ASVEL is a team that still has fewer victories than it could have had, as reflected by its game and the equality of the games it has lost. It is a team with character, physicality, that anticipates and has experience, and is also a complicated field, but we are going with the maximum ambition and the maximum desire to get one more victory”, warned Chus Mateo.
The Real Madrid coach will have the casualties of Sergio Llull, Guerschon Yabusele and Rudy Fernández, as well as the doubtful Peter Cornelie, while he is recovering Adam Hanga, while the French team only has the well-known long-term player Joffrey Lauvergne and recovers Charles Kahudi.
ASVEL VILLEURBANNE: Bost, De Colo, Lighty, Risacher and Fall — possible starting quintet — Diot, Obasohan, Tyus, Mathews, Kahudi, Noua and Pons.
REAL MADRID: Williams-Goss, Causeur, Deck, Cornelie and Tavares — possible starting quintet — Sergio Rodriguez, Musa, Hezonja, Poirier, Hanga, Abalde and Ndiaye.
–REFEREES: Ryzhyk, Pastusiak and Majkic.
–PAVILION: WiZink Center.
