AS Monaco in the Euroleague final: a first after its revenge against Olympiakos

Eliminated in the semi-finals two years ago by Olympiakos, AS Monaco took revenge on the Greek club on Friday, May 23 in Abu Dhabi (78-68) to reach its first Euroleague final in just four appearances.

The Principality club will attempt on Sunday to emulate Limoges, the only team in the French championship to have won the biggest European competition, in 1993.

ASM, which had already erased 26 years of French absence from the Final Four in 2023 (Asvel, 1997), will have another revenge to take on Sunday, against Fenerbahçe, who eliminated it last year at the gates of the last four.

In the meantime, she has finally defeated the Piraeus club that had also blocked her path to the Final Four in 2022, the year she began her rise to the highest continental level.

Vassilis Spanoulis will have the opportunity to win the Champions League as a coach in his first Euroleague season, having previously won it three times as a player (including two with Olympiakos). The Greek legend has profoundly changed the "Roca Team" in five months on the bench, replacing Sasa Obradovic, who was dismissed at the end of November.

Under his leadership, the team has become more collective, as it showed on Friday, whether in attack (21 assists) or in defense where, under the watchful eye of Franck Ribéry and Tony Parker, it ended up disgusting the Greeks, despite the efforts of Evan Fournier (31 pts) to keep them afloat.

The French defender, who returned to Europe this season, swam, bringing his team back to within seven points with two minutes remaining (72-65), in vain. He will have to wait a little longer before winning the first major title of his career.

"We played a great match, we were focused and we executed our game plan from start to finish. We showed character without feeling the pressure of a semi-final. We approached this match well mentally, which is key in this kind of match," said Spanoulis.

Matthew Strazel highlighted Monaco's excellent defense: "When we manage to defend well and make saves, not all teams can compete with our physicality. If we continue like this, we have what it takes to go all the way."

"(Olympiakos players) move the ball a lot, they only made 10 assists. We made them play a direct game, take contested shots and we controlled the rebound," Elie Okobo noted.

Monaco got off to a perfect start from its captain and star player Mike James, who is aiming for a first Euroleague title to join the ranks of the greatest in a competition where he is the all-time leading scorer.

The American (17 pts and 7 assists) thus scored 13 pts and made 4 assists before the break (plus 5 rebounds and 2 steals). Including a series at the end of the first period to put ASM back in front (35-32 at halftime): four points, a caviar inside for Jaron Blossomgame then a loss of ball caused to Nikola Milutinov resulting in an "alley-oop" from Alpha Diallo to Daniel Theis.

This victory is also thanks to the men in the shadows, Mam Jaiteh (11 pts and 6 rebounds), Alpha Diallo (22 pts and 6 rbds) and Blossomgame (12 pts and 5 rbds), essential for their defensive and offensive impact.

The latter particularly caught fire in the third quarter – which had been fatal to ASM two years ago in Kaunas (2-27, 62-76 final score) – by scoring 8 points including a three-point shot giving a 13-point lead (55-42, 28th) after some textbook shifts, illustrating the team play advocated by Spanoulis.

As for Diallo, he was the one who sealed the match with 1 minute 30 seconds left by dunked on a counterattack from Elie Okobo. "MVP, MVP" chanted the small Monaco crowd, much louder at the end of the match than the thousands of Olympiakos supporters.