Key moment in Europe for Unicaja. Ibon Navarro’s team lost last week during his visit to the Galatasaray stadium and now, in the last two days of the league, will be played their pass to the quarterfinal play-off, an appointment from which the four teams that will fight for the title of this will come out Basketball Champions League 2023/2024 in the Final Four in May.
This coming Wednesday, receiving Limoges at Carpena, and next week, visiting the AEK courtGroup K of the Round of 16 will be finalized, in which the greens aspire to be champions, in order to have a field advantage in the subsequent quarterfinal crossing.
The truth is that the green team arrives at these two continental games with some doubts about their game. Unicaja is not good. And I’m not saying it, Ibon Navarro himself said it this Sunday, after losing in Murcia. The coach assured that “the team is not going through its best moment” and that it is a “toll that must be paid” after the brilliant cup title.
Ibon is right, but he will have to devise a new plan on his blackboard because the BCL does not wait for anyone and now demands an extra effort in those last two rounds in which the team cannot fail, if it wants to be in May playing the continental title of the FIBA competition.
This Wednesday the fifth day of the European league will be played. Unicaja will host against Limoges at the Martín Carpena, while in Athens an AEK-Galatasaray will be played that the typesetters will be very aware of. The greens should have no problem overcoming a Limoges that is already eliminated and that should not be an obstacle to add the fourth victory in five days, and also certify in a virtual or mathematical way (depending on the result in Athens) the pass to the play quarter off. And it is that before the compositors and Frenchmen meet at the Palace at 8:30 p.m., that AEK-Galatasaray will be played in which a victory for the Turks would pave the way for the greens towards the goal of finishing the league as group champions, although on the contrary it would postpone the official pass to the quarterfinals for another week, because everything would remain pending what happens next week. last day.
In the event of AEK’s victory, Yes, the presence of Unicaja will be official among the 8 best teams in the tournament, but everything would be pending for the duel between the Greeks and Malaga next week in Athens to find out who is first in the group. Whoever wins that last game would be the group champion and would have home field advantage in the playoffs. And whoever loses, second in the group, classified for the quarterfinals, but without a home court factor…
It is evident that the compositor dream of playing the Final Four of this BCL in Malaga goes through beating Limoges and AEK. This team, although it is not at its best, becomes very strong in the Carpena in the heat of its public. That is why it is so important to gain home court advantage for the quarterfinals, regardless of the opponent who plays in the draw. If of the three playoff games, two are in Malaga, Unicaja will always be favorites in a tie that will give the winner a pass to the Final Four of the competition.
What has been said: Europe now demands an extra effort from Unicaja. You have to win these last two games of the Round of 16 league. The prize is well worth leaving it all on the parquet. The Final Four of Malaga 2023 looms on the horizon.