Real Madrid is looking for the double, but in two ways. On the one hand, because it seeks to defend the Euroleague title it achieved last season. And on the other hand, because in both basketball and soccer it has the chance to once again establish itself as the best team in Europe, since in both cases it is one game away. In football, the last obstacle will be Borussia Dortmund in the June 1 final at Wembley. In basketball, the final step will be on Sunday against Panathinaikos. It is the only club in history that has already achieved this, when it established itself in both disciplines in 2018. In addition, it is the seventh Euroleague final that it will play in the last 11 editions.
This Friday, the team led by Argentine Facundo Campazzo took the penultimate step to achieve glory by beating Olympiakos of Greece 87-76 in Berlin in one of the semifinals of the Final Four, with three points, nine assists, five rebounds and two robberies by the point guard, who spent almost 30 minutes on the field. Although he attacked the rim very little, Campazzo was key to putting together the game of Chus Mateo’s team and on the defensive level, so much so that he did not come out in the entire second half. The top scorer for the Spanish team was the Bosnian Dzanan Musa, who scored 20 points, with 3/5 triples.
The first quarter was key to the definition of the game, since the intense defense left Olympiakos with only ten points scored and the Whites’ effectiveness in three-pointers allowed them to score 28 points. That difference began to decide the duel, beyond the reactions of the Greeks in the second half, when they reduced the deficit to ten points. “We knew that was going to happen,” Campazzo acknowledged after the game. “Our first half was very good and we knew that they were going to come at us with a more intense game, they were going to risk more to steal the ball. But that first half helped us to be calm and alert to define it,” analyzed the Argentine, He was champion in 2015 and 2018, but he never achieved it with as much prominence as he has had this season.
Madrid’s rival in the final that will be played on Sunday also in Berlin will be Panathinaikos, who beat Turkish Fenerbahce 73-57 in the first round. Luca Vildoza was on the Greek team’s squad, but he did not have minutes due to the decision of coach Ergin Ataman. The figure of the winner was the Frenchman Mathias Lessort with 17 points and 10 rebounds.
2024-05-25 03:01:00
#Real #Madrid #qualified #Euroleague #final #double #Campazzos #team #game #Euroleague #title
