“For Fenerbahçe, reaching the Final Four has been a goal since the beginning of the season, considering the composition, investments and history of the club. As for us, we have secured an excellent placement in the regular season, but we all want the next step and a new placement in the Final Four. We achieved that last season. A second year in a row among the top four teams in the Euroleague would be incredible“, he said Saša Obradović.
Many will say that the “Gaston Medesin” hall does not make too much noise and makes a difference. The rooms under the stadium in Monte Carlo, where the basketball floor is located, really do not look imposing. The wooden chairs, of which there are only 5,000, do not scare the opposing teams too much, especially not Fenerbahçe, who know how to have a spectacular advantage.
However, Monaco has something special. The hall is always full, and the playing staff of Knežev is such that they can really beat anyone in the Euroleague. After all Mike James he is playing the season of his life and all eyes will be on him against Fener.
“We want to show that there is something in Monaco that is perhaps bigger than basketball. Basketball can be something that will open many doors. The main goal is to start the Arena project, but we don’t want it to be just a basketball Arena, we want it to be a hall for everyone. From concerts, sports, various events, to be a place where everyone comes for their reasons, not only sports… We want multi-functionality that will generate profit that finances the club, which will then have a positive impact on the entire Principality. That’s the main goal because without it we won’t get a long-term Euroleague license. We want to have a masterpiece of a hall that will ideally show what Monaco is“, said the general manager Oleksiy Yefimov for Mozart Sport.
In order to achieve something like this, you need to continuously produce results, and Monaco is definitely going on an upward trajectory with the Serbian coach on the bench.
As for Fenerbahçe, their season was considerably more turbulent. They started with Dimitris Itudisbut due to poor results, he was fired and replaced Sarunas Jasikevicius. The victories came with the Lithuanian. Fener reached the sixth place in the table, but with the confidence that they can reach the final tournament.
“We are aware that we are playing against one of the best teams in Europe. We want to find the best version of ourselves. We need to play hard, like every big game. Detralji will be key“, he said Jasikevicius.
