The top German basketball teams Alba Berlin and Bayern Munich continue to lag behind the international competition in the new EuroLeague season.
On the fourth matchday two days after his first success in the duel with the Spanish representative Baskonia Vitoria, champions Berlin suffered a bitter damper with 76:80 (29:52), and cup winners Munich suffered from the second bankruptcy within 48 hours with 71:79 (35:43) at Zenit St. Petersburg, without a win, remained unchanged far behind his claims in the table cellar.
Compared to last Tuesday's duel with Fenerbahce Istanbul (84:70), Berlin was hardly recognizable.
The home side only took the lead once at the very beginning, but then the Iberians increasingly took command of the floor and expanded their lead to up to 27 points shortly after the break.
Because the guests shifted down a gear afterwards, Berlin was able to shorten the match against the compatriots of its coach Israel Gonzalez led by its US star Luke Sikma (19 points) to three points, but Vitoria ultimately kept the match under control and drove his second Win of the season.
Two days after the 70:73 at Unics Kazan in Russia, Munich initially showed no reaction to the mentality criticism of its coach Andrea Trinchieri.
On the contrary, Bayern literally got under the wheels right from the start and after a 0:11 start they even ran after a 17-point deficit in the meantime.
But Munich braced themselves against the defeat, came back to eight points by the break and even took the lead with up to eight points in the third quarter.
However, as in Kazan, Bayern then lost their rhythm again and had to let the hosts go decisively in the final phase despite a total of 24 points from their outstanding thrower Darrun Hilliard.
Trinchieri's team is under increasing pressure due to the false start into the new EuroLeague season in the race for play-off participation.
In the next game on October 21 (Thursday) against Lithuanian cellar neighbor Zalgiris Kaunas, Bayern urgently need a break in order not to completely lose touch with the top teams.
One day later, on October 22nd (Friday), Berlin has to compete with the Serbian top team Red Star Belgrade.