Barça gave this Monday the penultimate touches to its preparation for the most anticipated event of the season. Almost ten months of work have led Sarunas Jasikevicius and his players to a new final four and, before traveling to Belgrade this Tuesday afternoon, the squad tried to get in tune on the Palau's parquet. Today they will say goodbye to their home and head to the Stark Arena in the Serbian capital, where on Saturday all Barcelona fans dream, some with their eyes open although others choose to leave them closed, of lifting the third Euroleague in its history. “We think about the rival, but above all about ourselves. At this point everyone has some discomfort, but we're fine, we're ready, ”said Sarunas Jasikevicius, apparently calm a few hours before the big Euroleague event.
On the parquet it was possible to see all the players training in good condition, even those with major discomforts such as Kuric, booked against Manresa and Bilbao due to slight lower back pain. "He is here to play, it has been all precaution," confirm club sources. Only Sergi Martínez was missing, with a minor cold. “It is difficult to know if we are in the best moment of the season, but we are very excited and we are ready”, insisted the Lithuanian coach.
Nothing more and nothing less than Real Madrid awaits Barça in the semifinals, a rival with whom they have already met six times this season alone, with five Blaugrana wins. “I don't care if we've won 20 times or lost 20 times, we're starting from scratch and we're aware, we're all 80 minutes from the title. They, too!” Jasikevicius snapped. “They are perhaps in the best moment of the season and in recent games they have tried to surprise us with new things. They have been much hungrier than us, and we have to match it, ”he stressed.
Although, above all, the Barça coach values the experience that his players have in the big events. “It is difficult to control emotions in a final four, I did not sleep in a week before the first, and there are some players who have to go through this and it will be difficult, but they have to go through it alone. In general we have an experienced team and the time has come for the most experienced players. In addition, many of them have already lived through last year's in Cologne, and it is good to have that experience together”, he concluded.
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