Bayern welcomes rivals Alba Berlin on Friday

The EuroLeague season is already entering the last third of the regular season and FC Bayern Basketball continues in its splendid position after two road victories in Moscow. As fifth in the standings, the team of head coach Andrea Trinchieri holds strong in the crowded field and has already tied the "German record" of 14 wins in the top league from the FCBB 2018/2019 season (14-16 after 30 gamedays, 11th place).

On gameday 24, the German rivalry game against Alba Berlin will now take place, with the local clásico tipping off at 20:30 on Friday evening (Feb. 5) at the Audi Dome. MagentaSport will broadcast on its platforms at 20:15.

The winners of the Munich Final10 in June are guests at the Audi Dome holding an 8-15 record (FCBB: 14-9) - 16th in the standings. This is the same position they occupied last year until the break, one place and one win better than the FCBB. In the BBL, Alba is currently at the top with a12-1 record, including the 85-72 win over Bayern earlier this year. The FCBB, on the other hand, clearly won the first matchup in the EuroLeague in Berlin last October (90-72).

Trinchieri: "I'm sure my players can hardly wait".
"Alba against Bayern, that's a great rivalry," Trinchieri stressed on the importance of the game. "We've already had two duels, with two completely different results. Last time, they kicked our butts and were better than us in every detail. We need to show character and personality now going into this game. And I'm sure my players can't wait to get going."           

Bayern vs. Alba, is already in its 53rd official matchup. Bayern leads all-time 32-19 - BBL (27-15), EuroLeague (2-0), EuroCup (1 win, 1 tie) and German Cup (2-4).

After the Berliners overcame Corona-related personnel issues in the fall and - like Bayern for weeks - numerous injuries, they are finally back to nearly full strength. Zan Mark Sikso and Robin Amaize (both in training) will again miss another game and the recent returnees Vladimir Lucic, Nihad Djedovic as well as Paul Zipser remain with question marks. On the opposite side the guards Jason Granger and Peyton Siva as well as Niels Giffey are out.

One of Bayern's main tasks will be to control the rebounding and Berlin's transition game. Under their own basket, Alba is the weakest of the 18 teams in collecting rebounds (20.6 orpg FCBB: 23.5). Bayern's top scorer Jalen Reynolds (14.1 ppg; 6.6 rpg), Vladimir Lucic (13.2 and 4.7, respectively) & Co. will be looking for advantages at the basket. In addition, it is important to maintain strong defense against the opponent's three-point attempts (only 33.7% hit rate allowed).              

Last but not least, in addition to his gameplan, Trinchieri's skill will be needed to balance minutes for his players who are in the middle of a stretch which sees six games in 12 days. After the win in Wuerzburg (74-70), his group only had Thursday to get in the mood for the EuroLeague highlight before two ambitious BBL rivals await the team away from the Audi Dome on Sunday (Bamberg) and Tuesday (Ulm).

Co-captain Lucic says: "This is a very important game for us, because a month ago they dominated us in Berlin. It will be a tough and interesting game, after all it is the German derby in the EuroLeague. They had an extra day to recover after their BBL game, which is important in this schedule. But there is still hope that we will be ready on Friday."