The basketball players of Budućnost Voli and Crvena zvezda did not have a good start to the season, but the crisis did not last long in either Podgorica or Belgrade. It was over, in fact, before it even began, and both teams now look the way their fans want them to.
In the Serbian capital, everything changed with the arrival of Saša Obradović on the bench instead of Giannis Sferopoulos, while the Montenegrin champion solved its problems in peace and quiet - support for Andrej Žakelj was not in dispute, and six victories in a row in the ABA League and Eurocup followed. The last in the series was achieved on Tuesday against Besiktas, one of the favorites for the cup in the second strongest European competition.
Red Star defeated Panathinaikos in the Belgrade Arena a day later, and those two results are the best possible announcement of the first big derby in the regional competition of the season.
Buducnost will be visiting Red Star Belgrade tomorrow at 20pm and it can be said that they are on a roll, but what can we call the moment when the "red and white" won eight out of nine games under Obradović's command? Six of those were in the Euroleague, seven including the first triumph in a row that was achieved against Fenerbahçe the day before the experienced coach was promoted...
The future is not at the Euroleague level, but in Belgrade's "Aleksandar Nikolić" arena it certainly has something to offer - motivated, combative with maximum engagement on both ends of the floor, the Podgorica team knows it has a chance, although there is no dilemma as to who will be the favorite in this duel.
- We don't count consecutive wins - I'm interested in progress in the game, approach and energy. In every game it gets better and better. Not every game can be played like this one against Besiktas, but I think we've improved in terms of aggressiveness. And we still have reserves in the game - Žakelj noted.
Buducnost has played five games in Group B of the ABA League and has one loss (to Spartak in “Morača”), and the same team surprised Red Star in Subotica over the weekend in the only match that Obradović's team has played outside Belgrade in the last four weeks (since visiting Fenerbahce in Istanbul on October 10).
"The Blues" defeated Red Star three times in the regional competition last season, once away - in February of this year when it was 96:89 in the former Pionir. If they manage to do the same tomorrow night - it would be a real wind at their back for the rest of the season in which Buducnost does not hide its ambitions in either the ABA League or the Eurocup.
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