The Whites look for a win to earn the home-court advantage

Real Madrid visit Virtus Bologna's stadium on Euroleague matchday 30. Mathematically qualified for the playoffs following Fenerbahçe's defeat to EA7 Emporio Armani Milan in their postponed game, our team will be looking for a win that will keep them in the fight for the lead and bring them closer to achieving home-court advantage. They are up against an Italian side who are in the final stages of their bid to finish in the top eight with five games to go in the Regular Season.

With the first objective already achieved, in what will be our tenth consecutive appearance in the playoffs, Real Madrid face an important game for their hopes of finishing in the top four. A clash between two greats of the competition: the 10 Madrid titles versus the two of the Bolognese side. The team coached by Sergio Scariolo cannot fail if they hope to make it to the play-offs. They are currently separated by two wins.

Madrid beat another Italian team in their last Euroleague fixture, EA7 Emporio Armani Milan (91-87), while Scariolo's side lost at Monaco and have now lost three of their last four games. But Virtus Bologna is a very dangerous team and they proved it in the first round at the WiZink Center (91-95). They have great offensive potential with very experienced players such as Teodosic, Belinelli, Hackett, Mickey and Shengelia. They are very capable in assists and very accurate from three-point range. Chus Mateo's team will have to impose their defensive prowess and their superiority in the paint. Our offence, led by Musa (MVP in the last game) and Tavares (averaging 18 index rating points over the last six games), will aim to punish an opposition defence that concedes more than 81 points on average.

Standings
Real Madrid are second at the start of the round, with three more wins than fifth-placed Fenerbahçe, who we play next Wednesday and who we already beat in the first round (71-85). In addition to gaining a home-court advantage, we have the chance to establish our record number of wins in the Regular Season, the 23 achieved in the 2016/17 season. We need four in five games. The first step toward this is a win today at the Virtus Segafredo Arena.