Real also survived Olympiakos and reached the 11th European title

Real Madrid is the winner of the Euroleague for the 2022/2023 season!

Jesus Mateo’s team won the title of European champion in an unforgettable way in a season in which they were elected on several occasions. The culmination came in the final match that will be retold, in which the duo of Sergio Rodríguez and Sergio Ljulj brought victory to Madrid! With three seconds left, Ljulj scored from half distance off the dribble for the win and the score 79:78. Those points through Mustafa Fal were Ljuljo’s only points in the game.

It’s an incredible season behind Madrid, in which after 34 rounds of the league they were third in the table, and in the quarter-finals they made history.

They lost 2-0 in the series with Partizan, they were defeated twice on their own field, and Ljulja ended that game with a fight after a rough foul. Many talked about how coach Ćus Mateo would be fired at any moment, but from that moment on, the most trophy-winning team in the history of the Euroleague tied five miraculous victories and wrote an incredible sports story.

And in the final, Real had to come back “from the dead”. As against the black and whites, the heroes of the turnaround of the “royal club” were the oldest – Ćačo and Ljulj. Rodriguez’s three-pointer gave the Spaniards a one-point deficit, and Ljul’s shot with a wide arc meant that Dejan Bodiroga, the president of the Euroleague, would present the European champion’s cup to captain Ljul.

Real actually made two turnovers in the final in Kaunas – one in the first half and one in the second half. Real -12 arrived in the first half, and then magically returned in the very finish.

In vain was the brilliant game of Aleksandar Vezenkov, the most useful player of the league part of the competition, for Olympiakos. The best Bulgarian basketball player of all time finished this match with 29 points (9/13 from the field) and 9 rebounds, along with 4 assists. He was followed by the cheerful Ajzea Kenan with 21 points.

The two were followed by Shaquille McKissick with 14 points, and the impression was that Kostas Slukas, the man who could have brought Olympiakos the title with three seconds left, was not at his level. He missed from half distance from a relatively difficult position, and the duel ended with 6 points (2/7 from the field).

At Real, Sergio Rodriguez was the most effective with 15 points (6/11 from the field), and Walter Tavares had 13 points and 10 rebounds. Mario Hezonja was excellent in the first half, and he finished the match with 12 points (4/11 from the field), and the shadow hero for the Spaniards was the Frenchman Fabian Kozer with 11 points (4/6 from the field).

It should be emphasized that Real could not count on the injured Gabriel Deka, the suspended Gershon Jabusele and Vincent Poirier, who was recovering from appendicitis surgery, in the final four.