Milan-Sassari playoff semifinal: Olimpia finds Melli again

Fifty-two precedents in 11 years make it one of the latest generation “classics”. This is Milan-Sassari, with its load of recent history that is certainly not trivial. Four playoff matches, two Coppa Italia finals and even a cross in the Super Cup. The overall balance is 33-19 Olimpia, in a rivalry that a few years ago experienced moments of great epic.

Tonight at the Forum (7 pm) the fifth post-season challenge starts. The first was in 2011, it was a quarter-final that Milan hooked on 3-1. On the bench was Peterson who had replaced Piero Bucchi, one at the head of Dinamo. In 2014 the first match in the semifinals, with a throbbing trend: Olimpia won once again, then headed for the first championship of the Armani era. Also in 2014 at the Forum Dinamo raised the Italian Cup, the first historic trophy in its history, repeated the following year in Desio against Olimpia. A non-trivial story, therefore, ready to write a new act in the best of five games.

Here Milan

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Milan slips towards the challenge by collecting the best news, the return of Nicolò Melli. “A series of great tradition awaits us – says Messina -, in which we face a team and a club that have the right mentality, so we know it will be a difficult semi-final in which to impose ourselves we will have to express ourselves at a very high level both in attack and in defense. We have the opportunity to recover Nicolò Melli, albeit with a severely limited playing time, and this is great news for us. In general, we have prepared well, we come from a series with Reggio Emilia played in an excellent way, and we want to repeat ourselves against Sassari, continuing to grow, as we have done so far, over the course of the series “.

Here Sassari

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The graft of Robinson, the returns of Kruslin and Bilan and the arrival of Bucchi on the bench led Sassari to the umpteenth exploit. In the quarterfinals the Sardinians have eliminated Brescia, the undisputed third force in the league and are now hunting for the third final in their history. “It’s nice to be there, to play the semifinal – says coach Bucchi -. We all know what value and potential Milan has, it will be a difficult challenge but we get there with the enthusiasm and confidence of the three victories with Brescia, this can help us do better. We want to give our best, play good games, because we want to do well.