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Luca Vildoza's return came on the night Zvezda got back on track

Luca Vildoza's return came on the night Zvezda got back on track

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13 January 20233 Mins read

Luca Vildoza's return came on the night Zvezda got back on track

When Luca Vildoza went down with a hamstring injury in the first quarter of Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade's game against FC Barcelona on December 30, there was plenty of concern heard on the red-and-white side of the Serbian capital.

Then, on January 4, it was confirmed that Zvezda would not be able to register new signings until February 28, meaning that Facundo Campazzo would have to remain on the sidelines. After an excellent start to life under new head coach Dusko Ivanovic, with the team having gone 7-1 until the Barca game, the picture suddenly looked bleak.

Fast-forward eight days and everything looks rosy once again. Admittedly, Zvezda did lose against Barca in Round 16 and then again to Real Madrid in Round 18 to go three home games without a win, having previously lost to EA7 Emporio Armani Milan with Vildoza on the court, but that all changed on Thursday evening with a dominant 92-68 win against AS Monaco at Aleksandar Nikolic Hall, its first victory by a minimum of 20 points since Round 8 of the 2021-22 EuroLeague Regular Season.

Zvezda led from the midway point of the first quarter until the final buzzer sounded on a night that also saw Vildoza return to action. In fact, from the moment that the Argentine guard stepped onto the court, with 3:40 left to play in the opening 10 minutes, Zvezda never trailed. Vildoza looked back to his best, hitting a first-quarter three-pointer to get the fans off their feet before finishing the game with a stat line of 9 points, 1 rebound, 3 assists and 3 steals.

Yet, it wasn’t just Vildoza who gave the fans something to cheer. Filip Petrusev shined once again with 21 points and 6 rebounds, while Luka Mitrovic, Nemanja Nedovic and Ognjen Dobric joined him in double figures with 15, 11 and 10 points, respectively. Speaking afterward, Mitrovic admitted that the players were glad that they could send the Zvezda fans home happy:

"It was a great team performance from the first second. Great support, as always, from our fans. In the last three home games, we couldn’t give [something] back for the great support – we had three losses in a row in our home – so this was exactly what we needed. Badly."

Indeed, what will have pleased Coach Ivanovic, in particular, is the way that Zvezda won as a team, rather than just relying on one player. Zvezda was excellent from beyond the arc, with seven players hitting at least one triple each en route to the team's total of 15, while it also dished 28 assists. Both of those totals are season highs.

After snapping its three-game losing streak at home, and with a record of 9-3 since Coach Ivanovic took the reins, the only way seems to be up for Zvezda. Monaco head coach Sasa Obradovic seems to believe that good days are ahead for his former team, too, as he noted during his post-game press conference:

"With the extra class of Petrusev, with another extra-class player, not just Nedovic, who is in this group, [but] Vildoza, they have another dimension to their game. When Campazzo starts to play for Zvezda, this could be a team who is at least a playoff contender. They have everything."

Zvezda still finds itself outside of the top eight ahead of Friday's Round 19 fixtures, but Vildoza is back, the team is on a roll and Campazzo will join the fold at the end of February. There's a lot to smile about if you're a Zvezda fan.