Venice Routs Milan: Neven Spahija Had Already Predicted It
Neven Spahija celebrates his Reyer Venezia’s crucial 109-97 victory, as the team found a way to extend the championship series at least through Game 4 by defeating Olimpia Milano at the PalaTaliercio. It was a major upset, which the Reyer Venezia coach highlighted in his postgame comments. “We managed to regain our energy and put up a good defensive effort. I’d already said in the pregame interview that this was the situation,” the Croatian coach gloated.
““There’s no need to point out just how much talent Olimpia Milano has—it’s enormous. But when Reyer Venice manages to push hard for all 40 minutes, things turn out the way they did in the third quarter,” added Spahija, referring to his team’s 36-19 run in that specific quarter. “The guys did a great job tonight, and I want to congratulate them. We brought to the court what we’d been missing in the first two games: energy and defense.”
A victory that feels even more special when you consider the circumstances Reyer was coming from. After falling to a 2-0 deficit at the Forum—with losses of 100-80 in Game 1 and 92-79 in Game 2—Spahija had publicly acknowledged his team’s struggles, citing deep-seated and systemic fatigue: “In our rotations, we don’t have 12 players; we have 6 or 7 who are really carrying the load.” These words make tonight’s performance at the PalaTaliercio all the more significant.
The response had already been carefully prepared the day before, when the Croatian coach had precisely identified the issues that needed to be corrected: “In the first two games, we lacked energy and fell short in terms of aggressiveness, a fundamental aspect that we absolutely must improve.” Spahija also paid tribute to the Venetian fans, emphasizing how much home-court advantage could make a difference: “I want to sincerely thank the people who came all the way to Milan and who never gave up from the first minute to the last.”
In the stands at the PalaTaliercio, further energizing the atmosphere, was Federica Pellegrini, who shared her feelings with ‘Sky Sport’: “It’s a great game. We’re fighting it out until the very end. So I’m happy. I’m having a lot of fun. I really like the final sprints. It’s a strange game, though. No one expected us to be here, but here we are. So we’re fighting it out until the very end.” The queen of swimming also highlighted the difference compared to the kind of cheering she’s more familiar with: “I understand that in a game played off the water, obviously, this background noise gives you an incredible boost.”
The road that led Reyer to this final was long and grueling, and partly explains the fatigue reported in recent weeks. The Orogranata only managed to get the better of Derthona Tortona in the decisive Game 5 at the PalaTaliercio, before eliminating defending champion Virtus Bologna in a hard-fought semifinal. It was precisely against the “Vu Nere” that Venice brought out its best: Amedeo Tessitori scored 22 points in the decisive Game 4, contributing to the sensational fourth-quarter comeback in which Reyer scored 33 points in the final ten minutes to overturn a ten-point deficit. This is a team, therefore, accustomed to never giving up, and tonight it proved it once again.
