Real Madrid returns calmer to the place of its resurrection
The Madrid team, already with the ‘court factor’ secured for the Euroleague ‘playoffs’, visits a Partizan in need
MADRID, 20 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Real Madrid will complete this Thursday the last double day of the Regular Phase of the 2023-2024 Euroleague with its duel (8:30 p.m.) against the Serbian Partizan, which it visits at the Stark Arena, the stage where it was resurrected last season and to which Now he arrives with much more peace of mind and his main duties already done.
The current European champion solved its clash against last-place ALBA Berlin with more work than expected (79-86) and was able to definitively close the ‘court factor’ for the ‘playoffs’ that give access to the ‘Final Four’, for which, with four days to go, all that remains is to secure first place and a theoretically more affordable rival to once again be in the final fight for the title.
At the Mercedes-Benz Arena, Chus Mateo’s team equaled the record of victories (24) in a Regular Phase that it now shares with Barça, Olympiacos and CSKA, without forgetting Efes, which had the same number in 2019. 2020 when the competition was suspended due to the pandemic with six days remaining. Now, the Madridistas will try to manage this final stretch as best as possible where they have everything in their hands to finish among the top two.
The twenty-fifth victory will be sought at the Stark Arena, one of the noisiest and ‘hot’ fields on the continental scene, but, where in addition to the bittersweet memories of winning the ‘Décima’ there in 2018 and losing, instead, the title in 2022, was the scene of his resurgence last year when he was on the ropes in the remembered ‘playoff’, in sports and non-sports, against Zeljko Obradovic’s team.
The 1992 European champion won both rounds, the second very tense, at the WiZink Center, but Real Madrid was able to make history and take the ticket to the ‘F4’ in Kaunas after replicating in the ‘hell’ of Stark Arena and then sentenced at home where they came back 18 points. Since that 0-2 in the ‘Playoff’, the Madrid team has chained 15 consecutive victories in the Euroleague, including the one that gave them the ‘Undécima’.
Now, the one that is most at stake is Partizan, which is in the middle of the fight to play in a ‘Play-In’ that is as expensive as the rest of the positions. The Belgrade team got rid of a direct rival like Baskonia (87-83) on Tuesday to defend its tenth place, the last one to access the new qualifying rounds. On their court they have a balance of 11-3 that they will try to improve in a duel that once again predicts good scoring.
“The four remaining games are going to be against teams that have not yet reached their goal and are going to fight as hard as possible. We are going to try to recover the energy that we have been using in the last few games, although we have had three games in a row away from home and “This will be the fourth. The important thing is to have energy in a very complicated field, with fans that push a lot, to be able to play a good game and have options,” warned Chus Mateo in the club’s official media, who was not in Berlin. He could count on Sergio Llull, Sergio Rodríguez and Rudy Fernández.
DATASHEET.
–EQUIPMENT.
PARTISAN: Dozier, Punter, Ponitka, Caboclo y Kaminsky –possible quinteto inicial–; Avramovic, Andjusic, Jaramaz, Nunnally, Smailagic, Trifunovic and Koprivica.
REAL MADRID: Campazzo, Causeur, Deck, Ndiaye and Tavares — starting quintet –; Hezonja, Poirier, Abalde, Alocen, Yabusele, Diagne and Hugo Gonzalez.
–REFEREES: Rocha, Zamojsky and Peerandi.
–PAVIL: Stark Arena.
–TIME: 20.30/#Let’s go.