Basketball, after the knockout on Wednesday, the path to the Champions League is almost compromised Sunday in Milan should make his debut the long Senegalese, long out
SASSARI. It is forbidden to look back, because the slope is still steep but if only to deal with it a hand is on the way. Dinamo comes out with broken bones from the halfway point of the Champions League “round of death”, where they have remedied three defeats in three games, and are forced to immediately turn the page, because Sunday will be even tougher.
For the away match at the home of Ax Armani Exchange Milano, the lone leaders of Serie A after 5 games, Demis Cavina should finally have Ousmane Diop at his disposal: the Senegalese winger, having passed the rehabilitation phase after the reconstruction of a cartilage of the right knee, appeared on the bench both last Sunday against Brescia and two nights ago against Prometey. The long year 2000, fresh from an excellent season in A2 with Turin, should therefore be ready to play the first few minutes – certainly still not too many – of his season. Jack Devecchi is also leaving the infirmary, while Massimo Chessa will have to wait even longer before returning to the group.
To get out unscathed from the Olimpia field of Ettore Messina, Gianmarco Pozzecco and Gigi Datome, great protagonist in the Euroleague and back from five victories in five league games, Banco di Sardegna will first need to shake up from a mental point of view after the recent reverses, and then in any case to dispute a test on the verge of perfection. “If nothing else in Milan we will take the field with our heads free, because we will certainly not be favorites”, anticipated coach Cavina immediately after Wednesday’s defeat against Prometey.
Certainly the moment is not easy for the biancoblù. The external defeats against Ludwigsburg and Tenerife could have been put in the budget, even if not in those proportions, and even the knockout against Bilan and comrades is not particularly scandalous, even framing it in a general context in which – just to give an example – the same Brindisi has always lost in the Champions League so far. But the alarm bell in the Dinamo home has started to ring for some time, especially with regard to mental stability over the course of 40 minutes and the continuous drops in tension.
Diop’s return to the track will not have the effect of a magic wand shot either in the short or in the medium term, but it is still a new starting point. Then, of course, everything else will also be needed.