Euroleague Basketball: Monaco gets revenge and reaches its first final after its victory over Olympiakos in Abu Dhabi
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 only four participations.
The Principality club will attempt on Sunday to emulate Limoges, the only team in the French championship to have won Europe's biggest competition, in 1993.
ASM, which had already erased, in 2023, a twenty-six-year French absence from the Final Four (Asvel, 1997), will have another revenge to take on Sunday, against Fenerbahçe, who eliminated them last year at the gates of the last four. In the meantime, they have finally defeated this club from Piraeus who had also blocked their path to the Final Four in 2022, the year they began their ascent to the highest continental level.
Vassilis Spanoulis will have the opportunity to win the Champions League as a coach in his first Euroleague season, after having 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, 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.
An “alley-oop” from Alpha Diallo for Daniel TheisMonaco got off to a perfect start with 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, an assist inside for Jaron Blossomgame, then a loss of the ball caused to Nikola Milutinov resulting in an alley-oop from Alpha Diallo to Daniel Theis.
This victory is also that of the men in the shadows, Mam Jaiteh (11 pts and 6 rbds), Alpha Diallo (22 pts and 6 rbds) and Jaron Blossomgame (12 pts and 5 rbds), essential by 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 and 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.
The World with AFP
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