BAXI Manresa visit Benfica in search of leadership
The Portuguese and the Catalans are the only ones to have won in the first 2 days and they are competing to lead the group.
BAXI Manresa travel this Monday to Lisbon, a city they are visiting for the first time, to face Benfica (at 18:30 and broadcast live on Esport3 and Teledeporte). At stake: the leadership of Group F of the Champions League. Both those from Lisbon and those from Manresa have not lost in the first 2 days.
After a complicated game in Murcia that ended in defeat in the Endesa League, BAXI Manresa resumes the thread of the BCL, where it has won the 2 games it has played. The Manresans want to keep the number of defeats to zero after their visit to Portugal. The team visited this country for the last and only time now 25 years ago, in a Korac Cup match against Ovarense.
The opponent is dangerous. Tomorrow BAXI Manresa faces SL Benfica, a club known mainly for football, but with sections of other sports such as basketball. They have guys on their roster who may be familiar to fans, such as Zirbes or Betinho Gomes, and others who are also playing a big role, such as point guard Aaron Broussard or power forward Ivan Almeida.
Dani Pérez and Jerrick Harding have made statements to the media. Pérez emphasized that "we are certainly playing against the most solid and strongest team in the group; they are in a very good dynamic and play at home; we want to play again and recover good feelings; it will be a complicated match and we will have to try to impose our rhythm to reach the end with options". For his part, the escort from Wichita declared that "we have to improve day by day and make the necessary adjustments to be ready for tomorrow; they are a good aggressive and fast team, a way of playing that we like, too; it will be a high-paced game".