There will be a full house at the Mediolanum Forum on Sunday afternoon when the last three championship finals between Olimpia Milano and Virtus Bologna are replayed. This is the third challenge of the season, the first in Milan. The last time the two teams played here was Game 7 of the last final, an unforgettable evening that will forever be etched in the club’s history. The present is obviously more complex: Olimpia had played a very brilliant game against Red Star in Belgrade, won it, and then suffered five consecutive defeats between the championship and the EuroLeague. Various defeats: against Pistoia and in Sassari, at home against Zalgiris she performed well below her potential; In Munich and Belgrade against Partizan he played two excellent games until he took control and then gave it back to his opponent. In Munich it happened in the final minute with a six-point lead; In Belgrade this happened within 12 to 13 minutes, after they had dominated at times up to a lead of 15 points. The game against Bologna, which is a healthy team that plays with confidence and does not put pressure on the table, is bound to be very important. Olimpia will still be without Billy Baron and Nikola Mirotic.
NOTE –EA7 Emporio Armani Milano-Virtus Bologna will be played on Sunday, December 10th at 5:30 p.m. at the Mediolanum Forum. Click here for remaining tickets.
THE REFEREES – Saverio Lazarini, Manuel Mazzoni, Andrea Valzani.
COACH ETTORE MESSINA – “We are playing at the end of a week that has not rewarded us, so it will be important to go onto the pitch with toughness, emotional commitment, humility and great attention. Aspects that are not lacking, but that in practice are still not enough to finish many games that we have left there, and in this sense, Munich and Belgrade represent another lesson with regard to Virtus: we have to keep working, until we achieve another objective continuity throughout the match. We all feel the affection that the fans have wanted to show us publicly in the last few days and that they have always shown us in difficult moments: We need a game like Olimpia, with great cohesion and mutual help on both sides of the pitch, like… in the DNA of the club and this group”.
