The wait is over, we’re finally playing. Two and a half weeks after the last game of the Play-In in Oderzo, Ferrara Basket returns to the field and does so in game 1 of the playoff quarter-finals in the series that pits them against the fearsome Gardonese. At the Bondi Arena the game will be played at 8.45pm, and we will almost certainly meet the seasonal record of attendance in the stands: the enthusiasm in the city is palpable, the pre-sales have gone swimmingly and the feeling is that we will break the thousand spectator mark. If on the one hand Ferrara will have the field factor on their side, on the other a pinch more tension than usual at the start of the match cannot be ruled out: the biancazzurri will have to be good at managing it in the first possessions and shaking it off as the minutes pass .
Gardonese is a team to be taken with a pinch of salt: they put Ferrara in difficulty in both matches of the second phase, especially on their own pitch but also in the match played last April 7 at the Bondi Arena, where Drigo and his teammates needed extra time to get the better of your opponents. It is true that Ferrara was without Yarbanga and Sankaré, who could be fundamental in the rebound battle today, but overall the Brescians were indigestible to Benedetto’s team who will have to make the most of the two previous encounters this evening to quickly put the match on track more congenial to her.
The blue and white group took advantage of these two weeks without official competitions to recover from their ailments, and more or less all the long-term patients have recovered from their respective physical problems. Benedetto will therefore count on his full squad to face a Gardonese team that will have its spearhead in the Argentinian Davico, especially in attack: 28 points for him in both the first leg and the second leg, in the two matches played against Ferrara. Much, if not everything, however, will depend on captain Drigo and his teammates: the Ferrara seen in the last two months has no one to fear, and has all it takes to aim for a goal that until January seemed like a mirage. The first act will be played tonight at the Bondi Arena, and with a best-of-three series it will already be fundamental for the continuation of the Este playoffs.
Jacopo Cavallini
