The Azulgrana’s former head coach received a warm reception from the home team’s fans, but saw his current squad lose by 27 points
Barcelona spoiled Saras Jasikevicius’s return to Palau Blaugrana
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Regular Season
Round 16 of 34
Group Regular Season
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All of the talk in the buildup to Round 16’s Rivalry Series clash between FC Barcelona and Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul surrounded Saras Jasikevicius, the current Fener head coach who spent three years in Catalonia before departing the club in the summer of 2023.
This game marked Saras’s first return to his former home, where he won the 2003 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague championship as a Barcelona player and later led the team to three successive Final Four appearances between 2021 and 2023 as head coach.
Given the acrimonious circumstances surrounding his departure, it was unclear just how Jasikevicius would be received, particularly after comments he made following Fenerbahce’s win at Real Madrid in March 2024 last season.
"It's not the first time I've left Barcelona like this, winning," Saras said back then. "The disappointment is huge because of how I was treated, without any doubt. The bad treatment continues right now, these days it has continued, about my family and that. One day I will speak out, I don't want to do any more harm. One day I will speak much more than I have spoken so far."
However, this time around, things were a lot more cordial. Last summer perhaps saw the burying of the hatchet between Jasikevicius and Barcelona after his son, Lukas, helped the club become Spanish champions at youth level. That day, Saras was in the stands wearing a Barcelona T-shirt and supporting his son’s team alongside his wife, Anna, and daughter, Aila.
Both Barcelona and Fenerbahce came into Tuesday night’s Rivalry Series meeting needing a victory. Joan Penarroya had seen his team win just one of its last six games, while Saras’s squad had lost three of their last four and came into this contest on the back of a 30-point walloping by AS Monaco.
In the end, it was Barcelona which triumphed – and it did so in style, winning 90-63. Fenerbahce has now lost its last two games by a combined margin of 57 points, but in the post-game press conference, Saras first wanted to give thanks to the warm reception he received from the Palau Blaugrana crowd.
"I came here to do my job, but I have to thank the Palau," Saras said. "Many thanks to the fans. I think my relationship with Palau has always been incredible. They have been very supportive of me in difficult moments. You really see it as a relationship and my relationship with Palau has always been incredible and I can only say thank you."
Despite its poor run of late, Saras’s Fenerbahce still finds itself in fifth place in the standings with a 10-6 record, while Barcelona is now eighth with a 9-7 mark.
There is still a long way to go in the EuroLeague season, but Jasikevicius – after an unwanted result on his first return to Palau Blaugrana – will be looking for an immediate response from his group when Fenerbahce travels to take on Paris Basketball on Thursday night. Barcelona, meanwhile, will come up against another of its former coaches as it heads to Italy to face Dusko Ivanovic’s Virtus Segafredo Bologna on Friday night.
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