Bavaria's basketball players move into play

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Blocked: The Bayern basketball players defeated Zalgiris Kaunas in a competitive final phase

Photo: Mladen Lackovic / imago images / Lackovic

The basketball players of FC Bayern reached the knockout phase of the Euroleague on Thursday evening - as the first German club in history: "It's huge, an unbelievable result," said coach Andrea Trinchieri: "But why should we stop dreaming now?" asked the coach.

From now on, “everything is open”, said sports director Marko Pešić, who died in the 71:70 against Zalgiris Kaunas “a thousand deaths” next to the floor when a seven-point lead was lost on the field in the final quarter.

The guests were in the lead with 2.3 seconds to go before top scorer Vladimir Lucic (13 points) turned the game around in favor of Bayern with two free throws.

With the final siren, Zalgiris even had another chance to win - but match winner Lucic blocked the attempt.

Coach Trinchieri was proud that his protégés withstood the immense pressure.

“That was our 16th game in 34 days.

That's inhuman, ”said the Italian.

The Bavarians had previously received support from Baskonia Vitoria.

The Spaniards lost after extra time with 101: 111 against Anadolu Efes, so Munich can no longer be pushed out of the top 8 in Europe on the last day of the match.

Bavaria's basketball has reached a new level

With this historic success, the Bayern bosses come a little closer to their goal of being number one in Europe after football in basketball as well in their first season under Trinchieri.

To prevail against internationally experienced and financially much more potent rivals and to belong to the best eight teams in Europe, that lifts Bayern to a new level.

The success is comparable to Alba Berlin winning the - second class - Korac Cup in 1995. With Pesic's father Svetislav as coach, Alba reached the quarter-finals of the European league in 1998.

Who will wait in the quarter-finals will only be decided after the last preliminary round match next Friday (9 p.m.) at front-runner FC Barcelona.

Bayern will be the underdog, but they were also at the beginning of the season.

And they just didn't accept that role, as Trinchieri said.

His troop is »The Dirty Dozen«, the dirty dozen: »We are not perfect, even far from it.

But we are also far from being ordinary.

That's exactly what it takes to chase a dream. "

ara / dpa