Real Madrid Júnior did not fail against Panathinaikos (47-71) and leaves the ground prepared for a tremendous Clásico against Barcelona, face to face tomorrow (10:15) for the leadership of group A and, therefore, the place in the final on Sunday in the already traditional ANGT, Adidas Netx Generation Tournamentthe junior final phase of the Euroleague.
In the historic Kaunas Sports Hall, and before the gaze of numerous scouts from both sides of the Atlantic, Real Madrid and Barça have won their first two games. And exchanged rivals. The whites raffled a final scare yesterday against a Red Star that today had no option against Barça (77-93). The azulgranas also won yesterday in a tight way against a Panathinaikos that today has clearly fallen against Madrid. So the situation is obvious before tomorrow’s clash: the winner will play the final of a tournament that the whites have won three times (2015, 2019 and 2021) and the blaugrana, once (2016). In group B, Joventut lost their first game yesterday and play today against Zalgiris and tomorrow against the defending champion, the Serbian Mega MIS Belgrade.
In the first game of the day, Barça greatly improved its image compared to its inaugural performance and dropped Red Star between the second and third quarters (54-31 partial). The excellent Nikola Topic (41 PIR, 25 points, 12 rebounds and 7 assists) shone again for the Serbs. In the Spanish team, a fantastic performance by Dame Sarr (27 points, 6 3-pointers, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, PIR of 27), Makar Voronin (25+7+5 and PIR of 36), Youssouf Traore (17 points, 9 rebounds ) and Kasparas Jakucionis (16 and 9 assists).
Afterwards, Real Madrid always commanded against Panathinaikos but they didn’t completely break away until the third quarter, when they turned a 40-33 lead into 56-37. An excellent section in which Hugo González plugged in, less toned until the break. The forward, who left the mate of the game in that final blow for his team, finished with 15 points and 7 rebounds despite the fact that he was not successful this time from the outside. The best in the first half was the Slovenian Jan Vide, who finished with 20 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists and was able to make the outside success while it was made final the work in the areas of Ismaila Diagne (11 points, 12 rebounds, 6 attacking) and Amadou Traore (4+13, 7 in the PAO basket). Real Madrid was much better in the second half and goes into Saturday with two wins and no losses. The Barça, too. And tomorrow they meet. Whoever wins will play the final.