Valencia’s return to Girona “has not been easy” after losing the Cup final against Perfumerías Avenida, but there is little room for regret at Uni. On Thursday, Alfred Julbe’s team begins a 22-day marathon with the last eight games of the regular season (between postponements and the remaining days), and the goal is to reach the play-offs aspiring to everything. For now, President Cayetano Pérez makes no secret of the fact that next year the club wants to repeat for the third consecutive season in the Euroleague and, to make that possible, they will have to win the league or be runners-up. Avenida, with its victory in the Cup, already has a guaranteed place. If he also won the League, the other finalist would in principle be the other direct qualifier, “although with the exclusion of this year from the Russian teams we do not know how the places will be distributed for what is to come.” This year the FEB has had three places, two direct (Uni and Avenida) and one going through a previous phase that Valencia did not pass.
“We only have the League left and we have to finish in the top two”, underlines the president of Spar Girona, who sees it as “feasible” to reach the final and fight for the title “because we have a team to do it”. However, according to him, “we just have to believe that we can do it, that we can better manage some moments of the matches and also have that much-needed point of luck and that the ball enters”. Girona, in the League, are now fourth, but have three games less than Valencia, now provisional leader. Uni are missing to recover the matches against Campus Promete, Cadí and Gernika and if they win they will catch the Valencians in balance (21-4) but will be behind because they have lost the average. El Perfumerías Avenida, with 22 -1 and two games less, will regain first place when he has played them even losing them. “It’s difficult for us to close the regular season above the third place because it would mean that some of our rivals would have to stumble,” admits Cayetano Pérez, who, despite everything, considers that the remaining games of the regular season are they must take advantage to get to the title fight in the best way possible.
At the moment, Uni is facing a devilish month of April, full of matches. Eight in three weeks, apart from the play-offs that will start on the 24th. they can play until April 21st. Girona will therefore play at home against Promete (Thursday), Estudiantes (Sunday), Cadí (April 6), Ferrol (April 12) and Avenida (April 15), and will visit Zaragoza (10), Lugo (17) and Gernika (between 18 and 21, probably) before the start of the play-offs.
