Paris (AFP)

After a controlled Euroleague regular season that finished in the lead, FC Barcelona comes forward with a serious claim to the European title that it has not won since 2010, with a first quarterfinal leg against Zenit Saint Petersburg.

In this particular season, punctuated by cases of Covid-19 within the teams, the Euroleague was however able to arrive at the end of its 306 regular season matches on time, and is preparing to launch from Tuesday its play-offs, with the quarter-finals played in the best of five games between the first eight of the first phase.

Since May 2010 and its victory in the final at Paris-Bercy against Panathinaikos, FC Barcelona has not played a single Euroleague final, and has not participated in Final 4 of the premier European basketball competition since 2014 (3rd place against CSKA Moscow in Milan).

In the summer of 2020, the Lithuanian Sarunas Jasikevicius took control of the club where he played for four seasons of his playing career (2000/03 and 2012/13).

Coming from Zalgiris Kaunas, he managed to win, with 24 wins in 34 matches and a first place in the regular season.

In the quarter-finals, Barcelona will face Zenit Saint Petersburg, who snatched their place in the play-offs in extremis, thanks to a series of three victories against Khimki Moscow, Villeurbanne and especially Panathinaikos during their last meeting, which allowed him to pass the Spanish club Valencia in 8th place.

- Milan, the luster of yesteryear -

Alongside Nikola Mirotic (17 points and 6 rebounds on average this season), who arrived at Barça in the summer of 2019 from the Milwaukee Bucks and who extended his lease in Barcelona until 2025, the Catalans have recovered the legend Pau Gasol (40), back 20 years after his last match at the Palau Blaugrana.

Barça will be favorites for this quarter-final, but will have to be wary of Zenit, who beat the Spaniards in the regular season in Russia (74-70) and who stood up to them in Catalonia (85-81 victory for Barcelona).

In the other quarter-finals, Real Madrid are in danger after an average regular season (20 wins) and will not have the home advantage against Efes Istanbul, finalist of the last edition of the Euroleague in 2019. and who had been cut off last season by the Covid-19 pandemic (competition stopped after 28 days out of 34), while he occupied the top of the ranking.

Arrived at Fenerbahçe in the summer of 2019, the French leader Nando de Colo will find on his way to the Final 4 his former team of CSKA Moscow, with which he won the Euroleague twice in 2016 (MVP title of the Final 4 bonus) and 2019.

Finally, Milan and Bayern Munich thwarted the forecasts by taking 4th and 5th places respectively, with both 21 victories, and will try to climb to Final 4: Milan to regain the luster of yesteryear of Olimpia (three times European champion in the 1960s and 1980s, last Final 4 in 1992) and Bayern for an unprecedented presence of a German club at this stage of the competition.

© 2021 AFP