The face to Madrid.
Maccabi Tel Aviv finished the regular season in the Euroleague with an expected home win over Fenerbahce and is three wins away from the Final Four in Belgrade.
Following the victory over the Turks, Maccabi is finishing a season in fifth place and will meet Real Madrid in the playoffs for the decisive series, which will begin with two games in Spain, on Wednesday and Friday next week.
The meeting with the Fener team was tricky.
Maccabi in Yad Eliyahu came with momentum against a team that lost interest and had nothing to play for.
She arrived in Tel Aviv in a missing lineup just before noon on the day of the game.
For a Zen reason, coach Avi Even had difficulty mobilizing all the necessary energies and alertness.
Therefore, Maccabi also had a hard time getting into things until the last 5 minutes, so it ran 0:12.
Stone: "We did not find the energies until we made the jump in the last 5 minutes. Glad we finished the season with a victory in front of our audience. It was not easy. It is not easy to bring energies to a game like this.
"There was a sense of comfort before the game and I explained to the players that we would not get the game, but would have to take it."
In addition, there were speculations around that Maccabi wanted to lose in order to meet Milan rather than Real Madrid in the playoffs, but Even made it clear that such a scenario was not relevant at all: "It did not go through anyone's head anywhere. This is neither my way nor this club's way. ".
The next opponent, Real, is in a long crisis that lasted yesterday, when the team was defeated in the league in Bilbao 79:67.
It was Real's eighth loss in the last nine games in all competitions.
When Even was asked to play in the playoffs he said: 'Real?
First of all there is Herzliya (the game tomorrow).
Do not forget that in the league we are only in third place. "
It took Maccabi a while to get into things with Fenerbahce, Photo: Alan Shiber
On the rival's big crisis, Even added: "I care less about when it's good to meet Real. The question is how good we will be. It's true that they were in better shape at the beginning of the season, but it's still an opponent who can beat any team. Playoff is another thing.
"During the season we beat Real at home and almost beat it away. We are waiting and alert. I do not mess with expectations. I believe in this team and we will see where it takes us. The big change this season was when we started believing in ourselves."
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