Nenad Markovic smiles, Neven Spahija does not

Evening with two faces for the Italians in Europe

Tuesday evening dedicated to European basketball cups gives one victory and one defeat to Italian teams: in the FIBA Europe Cup, Dinamo Sassari overcomes the Portuguese Sporting 82-69 in the away match on the first day of Group D, while in the EuroCup (organized by Euroleague Basketball), Reyer Venezia succumbs at home to Bourg-en-Bresse, which wins 88-66 at Taliercio.

"It's only the first game in the group, we were coming from a very tough challenge against Milan just forty-eight hours ago,” Markovic said after the game played and won by the islanders. “We did not have much information about the opponent, we had seen the two games played with Charleroi. We wanted to approach the match in the best way, we had to shake off the two defeats".

"We started well,” added the Bosnian coach, “then we conceded a little too much defensively and did not close the match when we could. But we were good at staying in the game and chasing them back in the third frame, this allowed us to manage our energy in the last ten minutes".

Of a different tone were Spahija’s statements after Reyer’s defeat: "First of all, I want to congratulate the opponents, who deserved the victory,” he said. “I also want to tell the fans that we will be back, what we are showing is not è our true face. When we come back full we will be a completely different team".