Real Madrid seeks help in the heat of the WiZink Center
The Madrid team receives Armani Milano in the midst of a game and results crisis
MADRID, 9 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Real Madrid will face a complicated match this Thursday (8:45 p.m.) in the 2021-2022 Euroleague Regular Phase against the Italian AX Armani Exchange Milan, a direct rival that arrives at the WiZink Center ready to take advantage of the current game and results crisis that is crossing the Madrid team.
The ten-time European champion is surely immersed in his worst moment since Pablo Laso’s arrival on the bench ten years ago and he has not been able to find the key to return to the path of victory, the first step for confidence, above all, offensively, return for the key stretch of the season.
Since he chained his ninth victory in a row against the Russian Zenit Saint Petersburg, there has hardly been any joy in the merengue ranks. In Europe, no more, with four defeats in a row against Fenerbahce, Barça, Zalgiris and, the last one on Tuesday, Estrella Roja. But it is that this balance is not alleviated even in the Endesa League where they have lost their last four home games against MoraBanc Andorra, Barça, Valencia Basket and Baskonia. In total, five victories in the last twelve games, two of them in a Copa del Rey that escaped and that seems to have had a negative effect.
However, Real Madrid has faith that the warmth of the Palacio, where this year in Europe it has only yielded against Barça, will help them put a stop to this bad dynamic, with the addition of doing so against a team with potential like the one directed by an old man known as Ettore Messina and with a player loved by the stands like ‘Chacho’ Rodríguez at the helm.
And the key is for the Madrid team to recover the offensive joy that has always characterized them and that in this streak has ‘disappeared’ with very distant figures and, most worryingly, too often repeated in a short space of time.
The 51 points in Istanbul, the 59 in the cup final, the 47 in Kaunas or the 62 this Tuesday in Belgrade denote that the ring has closed for the players, especially at the foreign level, with a lack of aim from the triple quite remarkable (18/99 in the last four losses). On the other hand, defensively, the level remains optimal and allows him to compete in many cases.
Laso will continue with the casualties of Causeur, Alocén and Taylor, in addition to the doubt of Williams-Goss due to a blow to the hand, although he recovers Gaby Deck for the visit of an Olimpia Milano, third classified who is two wins away with a match least, also waiting to find out what will happen to the three Russian teams in the competition and their results.
The Lombard team, which is somewhat more rested, is with a better dynamic in search of repeating last year’s triumph (76-80) and thus taking revenge for the narrow defeat in the first round (73-75) and try to stay with the ‘basket-average’. On an offensive level, they are not a great scoring team either despite having players for it, so a tight score is expected. Trey Kell, Shavon Shields and Luigi Datome are out.
DATASHEET.
–EQUIPMENT.
REAL MADRID: Heurtel, Hanga, Abalde, Yabusele and Tavares –possible initial quintet–; Poirier, Rudy Fernandez, Llull, Deck, Thompkins, Randolph, Nunez, and Williams-Goss.
AX ARMANI EXCHANGE MILANO: Sergio Rodríguez, Grant, Bentil, Melli and Tarczewski –possible starting five– Delaney, Hines, Ricci, Hall, Mitoglou, Daniels and Moraschini.
–REFEREES: Latisevs, Vilius and Bissang.
–PAVILLION: WiZink Center.