The Roca Team hosts Maccabi Tel-Aviv on Wednesday for the fifth and final match of the quarter-finals of the competition, with a ticket to the Final Four at stake.
Forty minutes for an immense performance. This is the challenge that awaits AS Monaco in its quest for European glory. The formation of the Principality is playing its place in the last four of the Euroleague, the most prestigious of continental competitions, in a decisive match, Wednesday May 10 (8 p.m.). After the first four games, Roca Team and Maccabi Tel-Aviv are back to back (2-2).
The fifth and final decisive round, played on the Rock, can install Monaco a little more on the European chessboard. And cement a little more all its importance for French basketball, which despaired of such performances.
‘Cause it hasn’t happened in 26 years
Twenty-two editions of the Final Four, eight countries, 18 clubs represented and not the slightest sign of a blue-white-red flag: French basketball clubs have been the poor relatives of the upper continental spheres since the beginning of the century.
We have to go back to 1997, and Asvel – finally 4th – to find the trace of such a long journey in the elite of European competitions. “I commented on this Final Four in 97 with Villeurbanne, but also the dark years when we had lousy results, we were always at the bottom of the rankingsremembers for franceinfo: sport George Eddy. It was quite painful to never have a victory to put in your mouth.“
Few French teams have since been able to climb to the top of the European basketball basket, to the point of no longer having any representative in the Euroleague between 2017 and 2019. The hopes of finding a competitive team in Europe in Monaco are necessarily big.
Because the title would not be inaccessible
The Roca Team may have been pushed in the fifth game, and corrected during the last meeting in the Israeli cauldron (104-69), they will not approach the meeting in the position of the small against the giant.
The Monegasques concluded the regular season with one more success than Maccabi, in 4th place in the standings. And if they do not have the history of the “club-nation” of Tel-Aviv, they do not arrive in uncharted territory, after being eliminated last season at the same stage, failing with a breath on the parquet floor of another European giant, Olympiacos (94-88).
“Monaco have worked all season, and worked well to have the right to play the most important match in the history of the club, at home.estime George Eddy. They have a 60-70% chance of winning because they are going to play at home. In Tel Aviv, they would have had an 80 to 90% chance of losing, that’s already colossal! There is no reason to go there timidly in this match 5. And knowing Monaco and the coach Sasa Obradovic who has done a fabulous job, they will go there with ambition.“
Especially since these quarter-finals are of a rare density, with three duels pushed to match 5. “It’s very open, there are indeed six, seven serious candidates for the final victory, including Monaco. And so much the better!“
Because it would be an ideal showcase for the French championship
Monaco new great of Europe, is this the sign that the Betclic Elite finally regains the pace? The Principality club are advancing almost masked, with this season’s attention captured more by the very likely future number one in the NBA draft, Victor Wembanyama.
But with its budget never-seen in the history of French basketball, the ASM has positioned itself as the new standard value at the heights of French basketball. “It’s a bit like PSG with the Champions League in football with its big starscompare George Eddy. The other clubs know that they cannot copy the model for reasons of means. But they are happy to have a locomotive that pulls everyone up.“
Because behind, we push. Paris Basket, which dreams of being another future cador of French basketball, has played in the quarter-finals of the Eurocup since its first participation. The Champions League, another competition which disputes the rank of “second European cup”, saw Strasbourg stop at the same level. Cholet Basket missed out on the C4 title, the Fiba Europe Cup, by six points in the final.
Great performances that are just waiting to be brought to fruition. “Ten, twenty years ago, we were told that the French championship was not profitable enough for television because we don’t get results in the European Cup. Now we get these results, but it however, there is no money going to the clubs of the French championship with the TV rights”, laments George Eddy.
This match 5, broadcast unencrypted by La Chaîne L’Équipe can do “hope for additional enthusiasm and be a source of hope that can inspire other clubs” he dreams.
