Olimpia Milano Trails Maccabi by 18: Peppe Poeta Is Devastated

Olimpia Milano has suffered its second consecutive loss in European competition (the third in four games) for Olimpia Milano, which was defeated 97-79 by Maccabi Tel Aviv at the neutral venue of the Aleksandar Nicolic Hall in Belgrade; Maccabi, meanwhile, secured its first win of the 2026-2027 EuroLeague season. Despite 23 points from Wright, the game’s leading scorer, Milan struggled against Maccabi’s team intensity, led by Madar’s 17 points as well as 13 each from Colson and Hoard.

Speaking to EuroLeague TV shortly after the final buzzer, Peppe Poeta was decidedly harsh in his brief analysis of the game: “Right now, we’re not able to play the full forty minutes,” said the Olimpia coach. “In this game, there were too many ups and downs; we lost confidence at the most crucial moments. It was a bad night.”

Milan spent virtually the entire game playing catch-up: only in the very early stages did the Scarpette Rosse hold the lead on a couple of occasions, at 3-2 and 7-5: from there, Maccabi pulled away to a +11 lead in the first quarter (22-11), before a Milan reaction brought the deficit down to -4 at the end of the first ten minutes.

From that point on, the team coached by Oded Kattash had little trouble controlling the game, heading into halftime up by 6 before pulling away decisively in the final twenty minutes, which saw a combined run of 46-34. For Olimpia, which faces Treviso in league play on Sunday, the chance for redemption in Europe will come on Tuesday, the 13th, in a tough home game against Real Madrid.