Second game of the year, second game of the week at Martín Carpena and same goal: win to stay alive in the fight to get one of the tickets for the Copa del Rey. Unicaja receives Valencia Basket this Sunday at the Palacio (12.30 pm / Movistar Deportes) five days after having devastated Zaragoza by 40 points and winning integers to be in the February appointment in Granada. But for this, it is an essential condition to add in the two remaining matches of the first round, against the Taronja team and next Wednesday on the Bilbao court.
Step by Step. If the Malaga team wants to continue dreaming of being in the Cup, they have no choice but to defeat the Valencians. And if it can be, for the maximum possible difference in points in case the eighth place is finally decided by the average general. Fotis Katsikaris’s men are tenth with seven wins and eight lost. Right behind a wagon of five teams totaling eight wins. Those of Los Guindos are forced to defeat Valencia and then Bilbao Basket to reach nine victories and hope that there will not be eight clubs that reach 10 in this final leg of the first round of the Regular Phase.
The first of the two exams could not be more complex, against a team with all the potential of Valencia Basket. In addition, those of Joan Peñarroya are also in need of adding to make sure they are in the cup match. The orange box is one of those teams that is, with eight victories, just ahead of Unicaja. They have a balance of 8-6, so if the typesetters manage to defeat them they would equal them to triumphs, although the Valencians would have one more game to play.
Unicaja had been one of the teams that had best escaped this wave of the coronavirus, but this Saturday he already confirmed a first positive in his squad. The rest of the team members had to undergo an additional test and they all tested negative, so the match is not in danger, except for last minute setbacks. The name of the player that Katsikaris will not be able to count on has not transpired, what the club did communicate is that he is asymptomatic and isolated at home.
Valencia Basket, meanwhile, will have the safe loss of forward Víctor Claver due to the injury that he drags on his foot and that of Nenad Dimitrijevic due to COVID-19. By cons, recovers Icelandic guard Martín Hermannsson, who also tested positive for coronavirus on December 28, which will allow him to unload also game director Sam Van Rossom. For the orange team it will be the first Endesa League match so far in 2022, although they already played on January 6, Three Kings Day, in the Eurocup against Bursaspor, which they defeated comfortably 86-68.
The meeting corresponds to the 17th day of the ACB, the last of the first round of the Regular Phase. Under normal conditions, this weekend the eight teams that will participate in the Cup in February should be defined, but the coronavirus has delayed everything. The clubs agreed to extend until January 30 the date to close the dispute for the Cup, but if Unicaja wants to continue to monitor this battle, they have no choice but to beat Valencia Basket in one of the most traditional duels in the League. Endesa.
COVID-19 Unicaja communicates a positive in a player of the squad
Unicaja was one of the few teams in the Endesa League that was surviving this new wave of the coronavirus, until this Saturday, when The Los Guindos club has communicated that a player from the squad has tested positive in the PCR carried out. For now, this does not jeopardize the match against Valencia Basket at Martín Carpena, which takes place this Sunday at 12.30 pm.
«In the PCR tests carried out yesterday prior to the match on matchday 17 of the Endesa League against Valencia Basket, a positive case for COVID-19 was detected among the team members. The entire squad has undergone a new back-up test, without any additional positive having appeared, so the game can be played at its scheduled time, Sunday 9 at 12.30 pm “, reads the statement issued by Unicaja.
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