Real Madrid and Anadolu Efes face the big title this Saturday in Belgrade, where the whites won their last crown and the doors are open for Heurtel
Real Madrid, the continent’s most successful team, will challenge current major league champions Anadolu Efes this Saturday in what would become the 11th European Cup in its history (7:00 PM DAZN). Four years after Pablo Laso’s team won their tenth title in Belgrade, the Serbian capital Madrid has the chance to win another Euroleague, a goal that seemed halfway through the season and also after the first part of the semi-final of the season. on a chimera. Final Four on Thursday against Barca and that is now possible after his performance against the azulgranas after having 13 points back.
Against Efes, who will play their third consecutive final, although they had never triumphed in the Euroleague until last year, Madrid also has a score to settle and a desire for revenge after the Turkish team knocked out the whites in the quarter-finals of the previous edition. Then it was former Barça player Chris Singleton who gave Real Madrid the finishing touch in the fifth and final game of the match prior to the Final Four in Cologne, where Efes came out on top in the decisive game against Barça by two superlative point guards, Serbian Vasilije Micic and American Shane Larkin. Micic defeated Olympiakos in the last second of the first semifinal on Thursday with a stratospheric three-pointer and Larkin scored 21 points against the Greeks.
“Both Micic and Larkin are two differential players, but Efes is a great team, beyond individualities. I’m not thinking about stopping Micic or Larkin,” said Pablo Laso this Friday, who aspires to his third Euroleague as Real Madrid coach in his seventh Final Four after his continuity was called into question during another very difficult season for the club. The injuries, the victims from the coronavirus, the painful defeat to Barça in the cup final – until Thursday Madrid had lost their last five direct matches to the eternal rival – and the constant missteps in the Euroleague that even endangered the standings of the meringues for the quarter-finals they pilloried the coach from Vitoria, until in that draw that led to Belgrade, his team supported Maccabi 3-0 and gained “confidence” for the Final Four.
Penalties for Thomas Heurtel and Trey Thompkins for partying in Athens also exacerbated the Madrid crisis, although, as a result of the ankle injury suffered by Nigel Williams-Goss on Thursday, the French base that had been separated from the team would rejoin almost two months later. can appear and play the final of the Euroleague. “There are chances that he will play”, Laso was surprised about Heurtel. Without Williams-Goss, who only lasted 52 seconds at the Stark Arena in Belgrade, the also injured Carlos Alocén and the youth player Juan Núñez, Madrid would only have Sergio Llull at their disposal, with the help of Alberto Abalde, so the Doors unexpectedly for Heurtel, after two of his compatriots, Fabian Causeur and Guerschon Yabusele (18 points each), along with the Balearic point guard (15), became Barça’s main executioners.
Regardless, given Real Madrid’s competitive gene, pride and winning nature, it is the team that has brought the king of Europe back to such a memorable event and allows Laso to be “optimistic” against the defending champions under led by Ergin Ataman, in theory, a worse team than Barcelona. And the experience in a duel of such caliber also plays in Madrid’s favor.
Source: La Verdad
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