FCBARCELONA.CAT

05.04.2007 20:55

Malaga decider awaits Winterthur FCB (80-58)

Winterthur Barça have forced a third match in their best-of-three Euroleague quarter final series against Malaga. After an intense 40 minutes, in which Unicaja rarely threatened, the series was tied at 1-1 with an 80-58 win for Barcelona.

It was a strong display from Dusko Ivanovic’s side from the first minute. The defence was solid, the team’s mentality was united and Unicaja struggled to maintain any kind of rhythm. After going 3-0 up early on through Jaka Lakovic, Barça were in control of their destiny from the outset. In the first period, Navarro stuck home two important three pointers to put his side into a commanding 19-10 lead. ‘La Bomba' would lead scoring on Thursday evening with 25 points, and also obtained the highest evaluation, of 29. Unicaja coach Sergio Scariolo did not hold back with his praise of the Barça star, saying after the game that “an NBA player is playing in Europe”.

The right attitude

It did not take long for Ivanovic to completely change his starting five. Just 17 minutes into the game, Marconato was benched to make way for Kakiouzis and defend the powerful Carlos Jiménez. After the very next play Rodrigo de la Fuente was brought on for Basile, who had just committed his first foul. But it was this all-round concentration that meant Barça looked so impressive, and as the game progressed, they only stretched their lead even further. In the second period they went 13 points up, and although Malaga did make a timid comeback early in the third, Navarro responded with more points to end the period 16 ahead. In the final period things just got better and better, and the biggest lead of the night was sealed with the final score of the day, by Jordi Trias, to make it 80-58.

A wonderful turnout

The players and coaching staff were hugely grateful for the support received from the Palau Blaugrana faithful on Thursday night. Almost 8,000 fans crowded the pavilion to help bolster the team’s chances of making it into the Euroleague Final Four. Whatever happens in game three, which will be played at the Martín Carpena, this was the last Euroleague game of the season in Barcelona. The Final Four this year, of course, will be in Athens. And once again we saw how the Barça fans have a wonderful understanding of the game, and the way they applauded a late dunk from Florent Pietrus showed how they are able appreciate great plays from their rivals too. All in all, a terrific night of basketball, and Barça and Malaga are now both just one win away from a place at the Athens showdown.