BAXI Manresa travels to Lisbon to maintain leadership options
The team from the capital of Bages will try to maintain their chances of finishing first in the group against a rival that has recovered many players. Vescovi and Jou will still be out of the squad.
BAXI Manresa arrives at the 5th round of the regular phase of the Basketball Champions League as second in group G and still with a chance of taking the top spot from Derthona, either by winning and hoping for a defeat by the Italians in this round or by beating them by a significant difference in the last round. But they will have to compete and overcome a Benfica that has recovered players in recent weeks.
BAXI Manresa will still be without Guillem Jou (recovering) and Chuba Ohams for this match, who will remain in Manresa. Santiago Vescovi, Ondrej Hustak and Max Gaspà have travelled with the team to complete the team, although they will have to discard players to select the 12 players who will compete in the Pavilhao Fidelidade. Diego Ocampo's team can still be first in the group but they must not lose momentum. To finish first, Derthona must lose at least one match, and if they lose at Nou Congost, they must do so by more than 17 points.
Benfica wants to play a good game in their last appearance in their penultimate European game at home. The Portuguese managed to play a great game against the group leader, Derthona, who they had on the ropes in the last matchday. They have two very important players back, Dreschel and Broussard, who are the leading scorers on the court.
Before travelling to Lisbon, the center Emanuel Cate and the assistant Carlos Flores said that «we want to compete, play at our pace; and win 2 consecutive games away from home, but we have to maintain our playing philosophy, in the Champions League there are no easy games: Benfica will want to win for its people». Flores, for his part, stressed that «the team is in a good state of confidence because of the good work we do on a daily basis. We are capable of growing during the match and we have taken a step forward in terms of solidity away from home as well. Benfica is a different team to the one that came to Nou Congost. We cannot think that it will be a similar match. They are a leading team in their league, very competitive. We are focusing on what we do and making our team recognisable.»