• What if a second French club won a European Cup this season?

    After Monaco in the Eurocup, Strasbourg is trying its luck from Thursday in the Champions League.

  • The Alsatians have an appointment with Tenerife for their quarter-final of the Final 8 in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia.

  • Can they create the sensation?

    The Strasbourg club have recovered well this season after two difficult years.

    Zoom in on this renewal.

It is THE season of French basketball. Barely a week after AS Monaco's Eurocup triumph, Strasbourg could lift another continental trophy this weekend: the Champions League. The triumph will come through three victories in four days, in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia. Including a first this Thursday against the Spaniards of Tenerife (4 p.m.) in the quarter-finals

Mission impossible for the Alsatians?

Last year or even the last two seasons, the question would not even have arisen.

The SIG was in the hard to the point that Vincent Collet had been removed from his bench in January 2020. But in recent months, it has returned to the fore.

French first with 12 victories in her last 15 Jeep Elite games and a current third place in the championship.

And therefore European with this qualification in extremis in the Final 8 of the BCL.

🔚 Day 1️⃣ - 𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝟖


📍 Nizhny Novgorod 🇷🇺



📸

Photoshoot

📺


Video session


⛹ Training



© ️ Hendrik Osula I @BasketballCL pic.twitter.com/oIjAAvDboM

- SIG Strasbourg (@sigstrasbourg) May 4, 2021

A reshaped workforce

"It's as if Cinderella was invited to the ball, it's a dream", sums up with the meaning of the formula Nicola Alberani. Arrived just a year ago, the Italian sports director is one of the main people responsible for the renewal of the Strasbourg team. With the young coach Lassi Tuovi (34), they completely reshaped the squad.

No more big CVs (for France eh!) Like David Andersen, Alexis Ajinça, Miro Bilan or AJ Slaughter, make way for elements more geared towards the collective.

"We looked for complementary players in each position and that each one can bring different things", continues Alberani.

“For example, at the pivot, Yannis [Morin] is very tall and Ike [Udanoh], forgive me the expression, loves shit!

As leaders, Brandon Jefferson is a big scorer while Jean-Baptiste Maille is more of a player at heart.

"

“As if brothers were playing together!

"

Above all, this Strasbourg team found itself on a value: the fight.

"Guys never give up and are not afraid", sums up the coach, also praising the work capacity of his group.

"The best example to show it is that everyone comes to each optional training session", image the interior Léo Cavalière.

The interior, arrived last summer from Elan Béarnais, discovered in Alsace "a real family".

“It's a bunch of good guys, there is a really good atmosphere.

It's like brothers playing together!

This is only the second time in my career that I have experienced this, ”he insists, before being chambered by the American Bonzie Colson, the team's main scorer and super complete player.

"With our heart and our mind ..."

"In the train in which we have been for a few months, anything is possible in this Final 8. I have confidence in the team, it has already shown that it knows how to mobilize", continues Martial Bellon, without denying the quality of the first opponent.

Currently 3rd in the Spanish league, Tenerife has already won the Champions League in 2017 and was a finalist in 2019.

“They have industrialized the high level […] For me, with Burgos (the possible opponent in the semi-final), they do not practice the same sport, exaggerates Nicolas Alberani.

But with our hearts and minds, we can try to be level.

After all, Monaco was no more favorite against Kazan…

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