The Spanish giant notched its seventh win in a row against its Serbian rival in dramatic fashion
Real Madrid continues to be Partizan’s nemesis
Makale
3 Dk okuma
Regular Season
Round 34 of 34
Group Regular Season
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Real Madrid celebrated yet another memorable win against Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague, triumphing 89-91 to pile more misery on coach Zeljko Obradovic’s men in the final round of the regular season.
The two teams could not have ended their regular-season campaigns in more contrasting fashion, as Real ground out a sixth successive win while Partizan suffered a sixth defeat in its last seven games.
It was also Real’s seventh straight win against Partizan, with the run beginning in the 2023 playoffs when there was so much more at stake than on Friday night in the imposing Belgrade Arena.
Down 2-0, Real turned the series on its head with three successive wins to reach the Final Four before eventually winning a record-extending 11th title In Europe’s premier club competition.
The Spanish club went on to complete regular-season sweeps of Partizan this term and last, while the Serbian side missed out on the play-in for the second successive time.
Trailing 85-76 in the home stretch, Real dug deep to force the final twist in the last few minutes as Facundo Campazzo and Walter Tavares came up big in crunch time, the latter sinking a game-winning floater at the buzzer.
Campazzo, who racked up 12 points, 7 assists and 3 steals to earn the player of the game accolade, acknowledged that an intimidating atmosphere inside Belgrade Arena had inspired Real to stage an impressive late comeback.
“It’s a big one for our confidence,” the Argentine playmaker said in his postgame comments. “The environment motivated me as we played with a lot of fire and hustle until the end. We were poor in the third quarter but we made the right decisions in the important moments.”
Tavares added: “I am super happy to help my team and this is a great win for us.”
The outcome pleased coach Chus Mateo, too, and he will now hope that other results go Real’s way on Friday to propel his team into the top six, which would mean an automatic playoff berth. If not, Real is headed for the play-in with a good chance of making the business end of Europe’s premier club competition.
“It was a tough game and we were in trouble when their big guys started to score threes,” Mateo said. “We believed until the end though and never stopped thinking that we can win. We’ve got a big heart and we play with enormous pride, as it’s not easy to win six in a row in the EuroLeague.”
In a tight game where thin lines made the difference, Real thrived in the paint and won the battle of the boards 44-33, having collected 16 offensive rebounds to Partizan’s 10 as Tavares and Serge Ibaka bossed the area close to the basket.
Tavares racked up 14 points and 7 boards while veteran Ibaka posted 11 points and 10 rebounds, tracing the path to a tough road win which will boost Real’s confidence ahead of the upcoming challenges.