Euroleague

Euroleague Final Four 2021
The Euroleague season is coming to the end. There is still a final four to play, which we were
deprived of last season, which was interrupted due to the coronavirus pandemic. In the Lanxess
Arena in Cologne from May 28-30, we will get the winner of the Euroleague for the 2020-21
season. The four most successful teams that will fight for the title of European champion are the
teams of FC Barcelona, CSKA Moscow, Anadolu Efes, and Olimpia Milano.
Let's start with Barcelona. This season, the team from Catalonia was brilliantly led from the
bench by Šarūnas Jasikevičius. After Šarūnas coached Zalgiris in a fantastic way and
unexpectedly took him to the final four, he was expected to repeat the same result with
Barcelona. Of course, Barcelona will not be satisfied only with the placement in the final four,
but will also try to reach the third European champion title this year. Barcelona qualified for the
final four for the first time since 2014., and in the meantime several times it did not even manage
to place in the top 8, ending the season in very disappointing places on the table. In the regular
part of the season, the team finished in first place, and in the quarter-finals, it was harder than
expected to defeat the team Zenit with 3:2. In the fifth game, Barcelona convincingly defeated
the Russian team, so the legendary Pau Gasol will have the opportunity to win the only trophy he
is missing in his career.
Barcelona's rival in the semifinals will be the team of Olimpia Milano. After many years of huge
investments where the results did not follow the money invested, Olimpia finally managed to
place in the final four, defeating Bayern Munich with 3:2. Olimpia will participate in the final
four for the first time in 29 years. Olimpia won the last title of European champion back in 1988.
Since then, the fans of this team did not have much reason to rejoice, on the contrary, they had
many more reasons to be sad because the team often managed to end the season at the bottom of
the table of Euroleague. Olimpia is given the least chances of winning the Euroleague, but the
team led by the renowned coach, Ettore Messina, will try to make a surprise from behind and
win the Euroleague trophy.
At this year's final four, the CSKA from Moscow will also be present. This is no surprise
because the Moscow team has been a constant participant in the finals for years. It should be
noted that CSKA has only twice failed to secure a place in the final four in this century. At the
last held final four in 2019, CSKA won the title, so we can consider him the defender of the title
of European champion. In the quarter-finals, he routinely defeated Fenerbahce with 3:0, which
had big problems with the coronavirus, so they couldn't do more than an honorable defeat against
the Russian team. CSKA suspended the problematic Mike James during the season, but he was
brilliantly replaced by Iffe Lundberg, so CSKA will try to reach its ninth European title in the
upcoming final four. In order to get that opportunity, they will first have to defeat Anadolu Efes
in the replay of the finals from 2019.
Anadolu Efes can be considered a big loser from last season. The Turkish team played great that
season and was ranked first before the season was interrupted due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Efes repeated great games this season as well. In the regular part, they took third place on the
table, and after a lot of trouble, they managed to beat Real Madrid. Efes gambled after two
convincing victories against the Madrid team. In the games played in Madrid, they had a huge
advantage both times but allowed themselves to lose those games and to look for a chance for the
final four only in the fifth game. In that game, Efes had a huge dvantage again, Real took the
lead at one point, but this time the Turkish team did not allow the situation from the third and
fourth games to happen again. At the end of May in Cologne, Efes will fight for the first
European title and will have a very difficult task in the semifinals, where the eight-time
champion CSKA is waiting for them.
Surely a very interesting final four awaits us. All four teams have an enviable quality, and
whoever wins the title, will not be undeserved.

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Euroleague Final Four 2021

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