It was announced this week that Serbian basketball clubs Partizan Mozzart Bet and Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet would be playing their EuroLeague games outside their home arena, Belgrade Arena, for the next week. As reported by Mozzart Sport, Partizan’s head coach, Željko Obradović, described this as an unexpected situation for the club. Consequently, many season ticket holders couldn’t attend the game, which was moved to the smaller Aleksandar Nikolić Hall with a capacity of only around 8,000 spectators, while Partizan’s games at Belgrade Arena normally gather up to 20,000 fans.

The reason for the relocation was the Belgrade Open tennis tournament, scheduled to be held in the main arena from November 2 to 9, with the venue already being modified for the tournament and closed to basketball teams.

Perhaps the change of venue and the lack of fans affected the team’s mood. The first quarter was relatively even, although tension was evident among the black-and-whites. However, Partizan Mozzart Bet then began to fall significantly behind, with the point gap reaching 16 points.

Only closer to the end of the match did the black-and-whites manage to tie the score at 70:70, signaling a possible victory for the home team. Unfortunately, it did not happen—the visitors won with a score of 79:74.

Foto: Maxim Konankov / Holiverse Arena