In silence, with hardly any noise, Real Madrid has once again placed itself at the gates of European glory. Pablo Laso's team will fight this Saturday to lift their eleventh European Cup (7:00 p.m.) in a season in which they seemed the last team destined for it. But far from killing the hunger of its veteran players, the final four has awakened the most murderous instinct of the whites, finishing off Maccabi in the playoffs without the option of replying and crushing the jinx against Barça in a semi-final with double prize: the final and the very hard setback to the maximum rival. “I am lucky enough to train great players but that history pushes us to continue being a little better every day”, reasoned Pablo Laso in the preview in the presentation of a final in which he will seek what would already be his third continental title. And he will do it in Belgrade, where in 2018 his team achieved European glory for the last time.
Madrid's rival did enter all the pools. For the third consecutive edition, Anadolu Efes will fight for the title in the final. Ataman's team lost to CSKA at the Buesa Arena in 2019, made their debut in the record last year in Cologne by defeating Barça and wants to repeat tomorrow at the Stark Arena after Micic's agonizing basket against Olympiacos. It can already be described as a hegemonic team.
The Turks have reached the final in Belgrade despite dragging physical problems in several of their players, confirming that they are the team to beat in Europe practically in the last five years. With Balbay and Simon out of action, Ataman looks askance at the battered legs of Larkin and Beaubois to stand up to a Madrid that will arrive very grown to this final. "Real Madrid have a lot of experience and Laso always prepares something unexpected against us", warned Ataman, who doesn't trust anyone.
On the side of the white team, they already know that they will not be able to count on Williams-Goss, injured in the initial stretch of the duel against Barça. There are many problems in the management of the game and Laso revealed yesterday that he was considering introducing the marginalized Heurtel in the squad in his place, a turn of events with an unpredictable ending.
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