Barça seeks to plug in against a grown Real Madrid
The Palau hosts this Wednesday the second duel of the ‘Playoff’ for the Endesa League title with a 0-1 advantage for the madridistas
MADRID, 14 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Barça and Real Madrid will face each other again this Wednesday at the Palau Blaugrana (9:00 p.m.) in the second match of the ‘Playoff’ for the 2021-2022 Endesa League title, a duel to which the Blaugranas arrive more urgently and ‘touched’ after Madrid’s authoritative victory in the first game.
Chus Mateo’s team used their intensity and skill to control Monday’s match from start to finish and win 75-88 to recover their ‘field factor’ in this final, which has not started as close as expected. Encouraged by their performance, the visitors will want to try to repeat a triumph that would leave them brushing the championship trophy with their fingers.
However, the Madrid coach has already requested caution in the face of the more than predictable reaction of Sarunas Jasikevicius’ men. “”We are happy to have won, but we have won one in a ‘playoff’. It ends right here and another one begins in two days and on which we are going to focus. It is a fight that promises to be long and intense,” he stressed.
His rival, however, will need to improve ostensibly in almost all aspects of the game to maintain his chances of re-editing the league throne, mainly in having more energy from the initial jump. “We haven’t found the formula to find strength and if we don’t, this could be a very short series. If we don’t come to the Palau on Wednesday to die, it’s going to be very difficult,” warned the Lithuanian coach.
Barça will need a better version of all its players, starting with Nikola Mirotic, more erratic than usual in shooting (5/11) and turnovers (4), although on a collective level, correcting the defensive rebound, after conceding 17 offensive rejections to his rival, and the losses (16), seem to be key factors. Laprovittola, Davies and Higgins must also step up.
Jasikevicius doesn’t know if he can count on Turkey’s Sertac Sanli to strengthen his inside game and rebounding power, and he will have to decide whether to leave out again a Dante Exum who puts a lot of energy into all his actions.
For its part, Real Madrid has raised its morale and confidence after clearly dominating the Blaugrana team for the first time after many games, which it has won in the last two matches and which it came to lead by more than 20 points. In addition, he knew how to suffer when the locals reacted in the final quarter with a 12-0 run in a game where the only bad news was Anthony Randolph’s serious knee injury.
Mateo will lose the American to rest Yabusele, although he hopes that Alberto Abalde can contribute more than on Monday when he barely played a minute. Sergio Llull, who got dressed but did not participate, continues to find it difficult for him to participate in a rotation that focused above all on Adam Hanga, Fabien Causeur, Gaby Deck and Walter Tavares.
DATASHEET.
–EQUIPMENT.
BARÇA: Calathes, Higgins, Hayes, Mirotic and Smits –possible starting five–; Laprovittola, Abrines, Martínez, Davies, Kuric, Jokubaitis, Nnaji, Sanli and Exum.
REAL MADRID: Hanga, Causeur, Deck, Yabusele and Tavares — possible starting quintet –; Rudy Fernandez, Poirier, Taylor, Abalde, Nunez and Llull.
–REFEREES: Pérez Pizarro, Calatrava and Castillo.
–PAVILLION: Palau Blaugrana.
–TIME: 21.00/#Let’s go.