the players of Villeneuve-d’Ascq vice-champions of Europe – Libération

The Northern club lost this Sunday April 14 in the Euroleague final against Fenerbahçe. It had been 20 years since a French team had reached such a stage in the queen of European competitions.

The step was too high. Opposed this Sunday, April 14 to the Turks of Fenerbahçe during the Euroleague final in Mersin (Turkey), the Villeneuve-D’Ascq basketball players lost heavily (106-73). We will therefore still have to wait for a third French team, after Valenciennes (2002 and 2004) and Bourges (1997, 1998 and 2001), to add its name to the list of queen of European competitions.

For the Villeneuve-D’Ascq players, the Istanbul players looked like impassable mountains. Rachid Meziane, the coach of the French team, even spoke before the meeting of “Everest Fenerbahçe”. It must be said that before the meeting the figures were dizzying: the Turkish club, reigning European champion, had a monstrous record of 53 victories in 55 matches this season, and a budget three times greater than the French. “Fener is in the culture of winning, we are more in the culture of exploiting,” analyzed Meziane before the meeting.

To reach the finals, the Northerners won against the Hungarians of Miskolc in the quarters, then knocked down Prague in the semi-final on Friday (84-78), a team which reached this stage of the competition for the third year in a row.

It had been two decades since a French club had set foot in the Euroleague final. The last, Valencienne, won the competition in 2004, beating the Polish club Gdynia in Hungary in the final at the end of an exceptional run.