Basketball derby:

“Just a stone on the way to where we want to go”

Eisenstadt's Dragonz challenge the Gunners in the red and gold derby.(Bild: Mario Urbantschitsch)

Do derbies really have their own laws? At least that's what the Eisenstadt Superliga basketball team is banking on ahead of the tough trip to Oberwart (Saturday, 5.30 p.m.) - the Nord Dragonz surprised everyone with a 96:81 win in their last encounter.

The roles between Oberwart's Gunners and the Nord Dragonz from Eisenstadt could hardly be clearer. If only it hadn't been for the last Burgenland derby, in which coach Horst Leitner's team was thoroughly disenchanted in the provincial capital. Do derbies really have their own laws?

Horst Leitner does not want to see his team perform like they did in Eisenstadt again.(Bild: Mario Urbantschitsch)

"Yes and no," says the Oberwarter Feldherr, whose team has since got back on track and celebrated four wins in a row, some of them impressive, "we're certainly not taking Eisenstadt lightly, but we're not making an emotional story out of it either. It's just another stone on the road to where we want to go." And that is the quarter-finals, for which the Gunners will probably have to win all their remaining games in the qualifying round.

The derby is extremely important for the club and the fans, but for us as a team it's just another game that we have to win.

Gunners-Coach Horst LEITNER

It is therefore crystal clear to Leitner "that the focus must be the same as against Kapfenberg and BC Vienna." His Gunners were convincing against both. Why are things suddenly going so well? "First and foremost, of course, because we're finally complete. The many injuries also threw us off our stride because there was no clear allocation of tasks, we had to improvise time and again, we also made the wrong decisions on the floor and so the negative trend got rolling." Now, however, one wheel is turning into another if the team is not to be stopped in the derby.

Austen Awosika (right) is probably the most dangerous Dragon for Gunners captain Sebastian Käferle & Co.(Bild: Mario Urbantschitsch)

"They really have zero pressure"

Dragonz coach Felix Jambor wants to see his team "perform completely differently than last time - a derby is always something special". What could speak in favor of his Dragonz? "They really have zero pressure, absolutely nothing to lose," says Leitner, who knows what makes their opponents, who only have two wins to their name this season, dangerous. Especially as one of them came against his Oberwarter team of all people...