The post-cup hangover seemed to have dragged on too long. Regal Barça took 30 minutes to get into their stride, but when they did they were awesome. With great teamwork and some top individual play from Ricky Rubio and Juan Carlos Navarro, they won in the Italian capital.

Beating Lottomatica along with Maccabi winning in Ljubljana was enough to ensure Barça have a place in the play-off. The Israeli outfit joins FCB in the quarters, and the leadership of the group will be decided in the final match in Tel Aviv.

Caught napping

Early scores from Anderson, Perovic and Navarro suggested things were going to be fine, but the next 28 minutes were inexplicably shoddy from Barcelona. They were poor in defence, looked disjointed as a team, and their shooting was all over the place. This was anything but the team we know.

Lottomatica soon picked up on this and particularly boosted by back-to-back threes from Luigi Datome, started realising they could win it. Alarm bells were ringing among Regal Barça.

And yet Barça went on to lose 14 balls and were just 1/10 in three pointers. Xavi Pascual called a timeout at 43-30 half way through the third period. This was all going wrong.

But nothing he could do could get his team back into shape. Playing a zone defence proved a mistake, for the Italians seemed to find it even easier to score against that formation.

Ricky and Navarro react

The last ten minutes saw Barça make a desperate bid to get back into the game. With the two star players on court, things suddenly looked a lot brighter. The defence finally got its act together, and a Lorbek three to make it 51-46 at the end of the third period suddenly had Barcelona back in the hunt.

Navarro then scored another three, and as the gap narrowed, Rome coach Saso Filipovski could clearly sense that this game was slipping out of his hands.

Regal Barça were suddenly back to their good old selves. Ricky Rubio stole three balls, and his eight rebounds and nine points were much to thank for the turnaround. Navarro led the scoring with 19 points.

It was an extraordinary comeback. With a minute to go, Barça were leading by ten in a game they had looked to have lost. Ricky’s free throw made it 65-74 at the end, and if ever a team has risen from the ashes, then that was Barcelona tonight.