He won the duel against Campazzo and Panathinaikos defeated Real Madrid to become Euroleague champion

Real Madrid could not retain the title of European champion after losing 95-80 in the Euroleague final against Panathinaikos in a confrontation that he faced with good feelings but that got out of hand after a second half to be forgotten. He couldn’t celebrate Facundo Campazzobut yes he did Luca Vildozawho played 13 minutes and 16 seconds at the Uber Arena in Berlin – scored a triple and captured a rebound – to become the seventh Argentine to win the highest competition on the Old Continent. Yes, the man from Mar del Plata followed in the footsteps of Hugo Sconochini, Manu Ginóbili, Pepe Sánchez, Andrés Nocioni, Gabriel Deck and Campazzo himself.

Excited by the conquest, Vildoza said he was proud to be European champion. “I’m going to say the same thing I said when I won the ACB League: we are champions, the motherfucker and no one can take that away from me,” said the National Team point guard, who dedicated the victory to his parents.

Real Madrid He aspired to win the match by a landslide. However, being better than all of his rivals since the season started, winning ten games in a row until the penultimate step was not enough this time. Sometimes, especially when talking about sports, expectations are not met.

And the start was stimulating for Real Madrid, with Eli John Ndiaye making the most of the opportunity to be a starter to score eight points in a row that included two triples and put his team on the right path. However, the first obstacle soon appeared. After three minutes, center Walter Tavares, a capital piece of the Spanish team, saw the second goal.

That forced him to give the keys to the inside game to Vincent Poirier earlier than expected. The Frenchman responded, as he has done throughout the campaign, while Dzanan Musa comfortably filtered through the opponent’s defense and flooded him with points by drip.

Panathinaikos entrusted everything in attack to the success of Kendrick Nunn, who could not find consistency. That forced Ergin Ataman to sit him on the bench and, contrary to expectations, his team began to tune out.

With Kostas Sloukas in the creation and Mathias Lessort at times winning a titanic fight of French fives against Poirier, those in green grew bigger with a partial of 2-12. Mario Hezonja, from the perimeter, stopped the rise. But Jeraint Grant immediately responded in kind and Vildoza put his team within one. Two triples from Musa and Campazzo ended up giving Chus Mateo’s team some air at halftime (54-49).

The return to action brought with it personal thirds for Tavares and Campazzo, only three points for the white team in seven minutes, and Panathinaikos’ first lead; with a triple from Nunn as the culmination of a favorable 2-9. Real Madrid’s period of darkness may have been anecdotal, but it meant that the intimidating Greek fans were even more inflamed.

Bad omens that demanded an urgent reaction from the white team, which did not arrive from the line of three, where the Madridistas tried repeatedly, chaining numerous failures in a row. On top of that, Poirier, in the middle of some referee decisions that unfocused the team, ended up seeing the fourth personal. In any other context, this accumulation of disastrous adverse circumstances could have buried Rea Madrid’s options, but he only faced the decisive ten minutes with a three-point disadvantage (61-64).

Conditioned by the fouls of their key men, Real Madrid had to put on the handbrake a little when defending, giving Sloukas the ability to think. The Greek was able to add the finishing touch with two lethal triples, but their effect was minimized because Sergio Llull did the same on the other hoop, taking his team out of the loop of missed long shots.

The Madrid team survived there, although it could not go further. Two baskets from Nunn and a triple from Konstantinos Mitoglou put Athens on the pedestal of ten points, with Campazzo and Poirier already excluded. The rest for Panathinaikos was to retain that award to obtain its seventh title, which consolidates it as the third most successful club behind Real Madrid itself (11) and CSKA Moscow (8).

80 – Real Madrid (36+18+7+19)Campazzo (12), Hezonja (8), Musa (15), Ndiaye (8), Tavares (4), Poirier (8), Rudy Fernandez (-), Causeur (2), Llull (6). ), Sergio Rodriguez (11), and Yabusele (6).

95 – Panathinaikos (25+24+15+31): Grant (11), Nunn (21), Papapetrou (4), Mitoglou (8), Lessort (17) -cinco inicial-, Grigonis (-), Sloukas (24), Kostas Antetokounmpo (-), Kalaitzakis (2) , Vildoza (3), and Juancho Hernangómez (5).

Referees: Fernando Rocha (Portugal), Ilija Belosevic (Serbia) and Mehdi Difallah (France). They eliminated Campazzo (m.37) and Poirier (m.37) for five fouls.