The “Prometheus” – “Venice” meeting will take place in Riga on Wednesday, November 22. The match will start at 19.00 Kyiv time.

After an unexpected victory against Israeli Hapoel Tel Aviv, Prometheus increased their chances of getting out of the group. But the whole struggle is just beginning, and in the eighth round the “giants” will have to play one of the most important matches in the entire regular championship of the European Cup 2023/2024. The rivals of the Slobozhan team will be their neighbors in the table, the Italian “Venice”, who have exactly the same tournament results (three wins – four losses) as the charges of Ronen Ginzburg.

“Venezia” is one of the old times of Italian basketball. The club was founded in 1925 and will soon celebrate its centenary. However, in all this time the team had only four domestic championships (1941/1942, 1942/1943, 2016/2017, 2018/2019). If the first two were won so long ago and now it is not worth taking them into account, then the championships in 2017 and 2019 became a real sensation on the Apennine Peninsula, where the team from the city beat on the water. A few teams with much wealthier and more status, such as “Milan” or Bolognese “Virtus”.

The club has been taking part regularly in European cups since the 2015/2016 season. The most successful seasons for him can be called the 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 seasons, in which Venice took the last third place in the FIBA ​​​​Champions League. In that draw, the Italians were eliminated from the FIBA ​​Champions League group, but thanks to the flamboyant tournament design, they advanced to the FIBA ​​Europe Cup and eventually won the cup.

Last season Venice participated in the European Cup and finished sixth in the group with a fifty percent success rate (nine wins and nine losses). In the 1/8 final, the Italians lost 80:90 to the Israeli Hapoel from Tel Aviv and left the fight. It is worth noting that in the regular season the draw brought the Slobozhanians and the Venetians together, and Ronen Ginzburg’s team was twice stronger: 75:71 (away) and -93:76 (home).

In the current edition of the second European Cup, Venice started their performance very poorly, losing the three opening matches. However, after this, the Italian club, led by Croatian coach Neven Spahija, recovered and lost only once in the next four matches.

Results of matches against Venice in the 2023/2024 European Cup:

• 4 October. “London Lions” (Great Britain) – “Venice” (Italy) – 76:69
• 11 October. “Venice” (Italy) – “Paris” (France) –75:81
• 17 October. “Venice” (Italy) – “Hapoel Tel Aviv” (Israel) – 81:97
• 24 October. “Venice” (Italy) – “Joventut” (Spain) – 79:64
• November 1. “Beşiktaş” (Turkey) – “Venice” (Italy) – 74:68
• 7 November. “Venice” (Italy) – “Cedevita Olimpia” (Slovenia) – 95:87
• 15 November. “Wolves” (Lithuania) – “Venice” (Italy) – 77:93

Venice’s squad is quite serious. There are six good American legionnaires here, as well as members of the Italian national team Marco Spissu and Amedeo Tessitori. What is noteworthy is that they are the leaders of the club. Guard Marco Spissu’s statistical average is 13 points + 5.7 assists, his efficiency rate is 17.8 points, and long player Amedeo Tessitori brings an average of 12.7 points + 6 rebounds per game to his team, and his efficiency rate is 17.1 points.

In the Italian Championship, “Venice” played with the Euroleague representative “Milan” last weekend and suffered a devastating defeat to him with 72:95, but this did not prevent the rival of the Slobozhan club from remaining among the leaders of Serie A ( six wins – two losses, at the moment third place in the ranking).

In contrast, last Saturday “Prometheus” left no chance to the Estonian “Pärnu” in the next round of LEBL, at 80:49. In this match, new star Rob Gray made a successful debut for the Titans, becoming the most productive player of the match in his debut for the Ukrainian club. We now expect the American defender to help our team at a higher level in the European Cup.

It is difficult to overestimate the importance of the match against Venice. Victory will allow Ronen Ginzburg’s team to gain a place in the play-off zone and knock one of their main rivals out of the table. Whereas a defeat would force Prometheus to face a tough fight with strong clubs in the post-season campaign, with them far from the best starting positions ahead of the second round of the regular season. All that remains is to hope that the Slobozhan team will win in this important match and take a huge step towards fulfilling its duty in the European Cup group tournament.

Sport.ua will carry out online text broadcast of the Prometheus – Venice match.

Sport.ua prediction: Prometheus’ victory

1.44 – 2.49 place bet money Zrobiti bet