The home team followed up on a shock road win over Olympiacos with a clinical display against Virtus
Crvena Zvezda hit top gear in time for titanic clash with Real Madrid

Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade enjoyed a perfect dress rehearsal for Friday’s blockbuster matchup against Real Madrid after brushing aside Virtus Segafredo Bologna 88-52 for the club’s biggest-ever win in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague.
With a postseason berth and possibly an automatic playoff spot looming, Zvezda improved to 18-13 with a second successive win after beating league leader Olympiacos Piraeus 73-81 on the road, boosting its chances of a best-ever regular season finish.
Following a pair of tough losses to FC Bayern Munich and EA7 Emporio Armani Milan, Zvezda bounced back just in time for the mouth-watering home clash with Real Madrid, which is also vying for a playoff berth after winning four of its last five.
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Dejan Davidovac and Filip Petrusev ran the show against Virtus as 11 of Zvezda’s 12 players got on the score sheet, with the latter racking up 16 points to go with 6 assists and 4 rebounds.
Petrusev acknowledged that focus was immediately being shifted on to the Real Madrid game, bound to draw another capacity crowd inside the Belgrade Arena.
“You don’t get too many easy games in the EuroLeague and tonight was easy because we made a good start,” Petrusev toild EuroLeague TV. “We had great energy throughout the game and we want to keep it up in two days [against Real Madrid].
“We knew we had to win this game, we put it away early and now the real challenge is on Friday. It will be huge and if we take care of business, there will be big celebration.”
Davidovac added: “We had an amazing game at both ends of the court and against Madrid we have to play the same way.”
Head coach Ioannis Sfairopoulos was purring with delight after one of Zvezda’s best performances of the season. “I want to congratulate the players for a great game and they showed how much we wanted this win. We fought for every possession at both ends of the court and on offense we had great movement of the ball,” the Greek tactician said at the postgame press conference.
“I thank the fans for turning up in numbers again and I want to ask them to be even louder in the next game [against Real], together we can win it. The win against Olympiacos was decisive for boosting our confidence and it came as a result of some hard work after a pair of losses following the international break.”