A dog on the field, a signal blackout, equality until the end, reunions of old acquaintances, controversy and extension. Barça won a hard-fought victory at the Belgrade Arena, in a duel in which while they met again with the person who only a few months ago wore their shirt, Nikola Kalinic, the Red Star faced the one who until June was the captain of Partizan , his eternal rival. A Kevin Punter who ended up being the culé hero in a match in which he lacked absolutely nothing (94-98).
The reality is that from the beginning equality has already reigned. Barça had a few good starting minutes in which Punter took on more honors than usual. However, Joan Peñarroya’s men sinned defensively, something that made Estrella Roja go from less to more although the culés managed to lead the score at the end of the first quarterthanks mainly to Willy Hernangómez and Jan Vesely (25-26).
During the second quarter, the script barely changed. Although the protagonist ended up being a dog that snuck in and even witnessed a local basket less than a meter away. Beyond the anecdote, Barça on an offensive level continued to do damage thanks to Nico Laprovittola and Vesely, but the problems behind the culés and a Codi Miller-McIntyre’s three-pointer at the buzzer sent Gioannis Sfairopoulos’s side into the break… although not without controversy.
In the review of that triple over the hornMiller-McIntyre received the ball after the kick-off, but there was doubts with the clock, since on that serve, Abrines touched the ball and, therefore, the clock should have been activated earlier -maybe it would have made the triple out of time-, but, in the eyes of the referees, it was fine. And with the doubt, but the three points for the Serbians The duel went to halftime with 47-44 on the scoreboard.
After the break, the high pace made Barça come out better, although the locals did not take long to respond. Splits for both teams ended with Red Star putting +9 on the scoreboard. Although in another culé arreón, which culminated with Juan Núñez taking the fourth foul against Bolomboy and two consecutive triples by Darío Brizuela, Joan Peñarroya’s men were only three points away before the last ten minutes began (66-63)… in which everything happened.
The you to you was once again the protagonist and then, with only one point difference on the scoreboard, the controversy began. First with an enormous action by Jan Vesely, who held on to, at the key moment, go to fight a ball with Bolomboy and get the whistle blown. fight with 26 seconds left with 82-81 on the scoreboard… although not without an eternal review at the request of Sfairopoulos to see whether or not there was a previous foul.
After that, in a subsequent action with only 20 seconds left, a technical to Peñarroya for claiming an arbitration error -that the eight seconds it took Red Star to cross midfield had not been indicated-, that they finally ended up reviewing -something they did repeatedly in the last minutes and that made the time go to more than two and a half hours- and agreeing with the culé coach… although the technique stuck. “Luckily Canaan missed the free throw,” he later said at a press conference.
And then what happened was that The blackout occurred… but on television. The signal that is sent from Serbia to the broadcast network that has the rights in Spain, Movistar Plus+he went away. And meanwhile, what happened was a timeout after which Kevin Punter appeared again, with a triple that made the score 82-84. But there were still ten seconds left in the game and, after another timeout, The television broadcast returned just to see the play in which Yago Dos Santos did not fail. The Brazilian put the 84 equal on the scoreboard in four seconds and the game had another timeout. And, although Barça had the option to gamble… Kevin Punter missed the triple and the duel went to overtime in which, by the way, the former Partizan captain did not make a mistake.
Punter came out on top, Parker joined the party, Estrella Roja hit again and Laprovittola from the three-pointer put the 93 even on the scoreboard so that, once again, the culé star signing hit another three-point shot and made it 93-96 in the scoreboard with 54 seconds left. And although Red Star tried… Punter appeared again, this time with a basket that put the final score at 94-98. MVP for the American (26 points, 3 assists, 4 steals and 30 PIR) and carat victory for Barça that attacks Belgrade and breaks Estrella Roja’s undefeated record a Euroleague.
