The A1 men’s championship is about to conclude its first phase, the longest and most exhausting, and is ready to give its first verdicts. We have in fact reached the twenty-eighth matchday and the fights for a place in the playoff grid and for salvation are becoming more and more excited. For Germani Basket Brescia the post season is guaranteed, but the objective of these last three days is to maintain first place, held so far for 24 of the 27 games played so far.
This weekend the Leonessa is awaited by the heartfelt derby against Cremona, who will host the league leaders tomorrow evening in the second of the two matches of the day.
Brescia arrives at this challenge after overcoming the small existential crisis that hit it last month. After the defeats against Sassari and Bologna, three consecutive victories came against Varese, Tortona and Venezia, the latter defeats in front of the friendly public. These successes, as well as quelling the above difficulties, allowed the group to find themselves in every way. The game is once again concrete and effective, but above all engaging. In fact, all the interpreters of Magro’s rooster made themselves useful and indispensable in overcoming the difficulties that manifested themselves before their eyes. Once the cohesion of the group was rediscovered, the individuals also benefited from it, one in particular…Jason Burnell. The former Sassari player must have received a positive internal boost after the altercation he had with Shenghelia in the match against Bologna. From that moment on, the white and blue number 4 has transformed into a true all-round totem, both in attack and defence. This allowed the teammates to feel freer to express themselves to the best of their ability and even beyond, as demonstrated by Bilan who scored two three-pointers in the match against Venezia.
Now, however, the objective is to maintain the concentration and the game expressed in these last outings also for the remaining three rounds. The first obstacle as mentioned will be Cremona. Cavina’s team is sailing in the middle of the table. Mathematically, just one victory could be enough for salvation, given the four-point margin over the last two places, but the only two successes in the last 7 games are quite worrying. The injury to De Negri takes away perhaps the best player from Vanoli who already has to give up Adrian. Lacey, Golden, McCoullogh and the former player with the poisonous tooth, Eboua, will have to work overtime to put a spoke in the wheels of the Magro’s boys and give satisfaction to the public who will fill the Palaradi as always.
The most anticipated duels will be those under the basket, between Bilan and Golden, and the one in the control room between Christon and McCoullogh.
The challenge promises to be close, but the greatest talent and the depth of Germani’s rooster make us lose the balance in favor of Mauro Ferrari’s team. Brescia won the first leg with a score of 84-75 in a match controlled by the home team from start to finish. As regards the direct clashes in the last 5 appearances, Germani has always had the upper hand, in fact the Vanoli victory has been missing since 3 January 2021 when she won at Palaleonessa 85 to 89. In the Palaradi match, however, the W has actually been missing since 28 April 2018 when Cremona won 88-86.
Full training for Germany. For the hosts, Adrian was in doubt right down to the last minute, while the season was over for De Negri. The player underwent surgery this morning on the index finger of his right hand and we wish him the best of luck.
The match will be visible both on Eurosport 2 and, as always, on the DAZN platform and will kick off at 8.30pm.
In photo Jason Burnell (Ciamillo-Castoria)
Riccardo Chiorzi
Tags: LBA GERMANI POINT Winning derby Cremona maintaining lead Brescias objective remaining
