Barcelona's 'way of the cross' in the qualifiers: Jasikevicius' team doesn't know how to "kill rivals or series"

Endesa ACB League

- quarterfinals - matchday 1Preview

Barca

0 0

without starting

Gran Canaria

Jasikevicius regrets a play during the last Final Four in Belgrade.SERGIO PEREZ (EFE)

Barça has had a hard time closing the series since Saras Jasikevicius sat on the bench in 2020 as Barcelona coach.

A deficiency that the technician already noticed at the beginning of the previous course.

"They are good guys and they try, but to win the important things you still have to be more bastards," he said in an interview for

.

And in those the Barça team continues, as scorching at the beginning of this season as hesitant in the qualifying series.

So much so that of the six that he has played since Jasikevicius has been in charge -he has won five-, in four of them he needed the last stake to close them.

Lagoon that Barça hopes to correct now in the

of the ACB, paired with Gran Canaria (the first duel is this Friday at 9:00 p.m. on

).

The latest example of the lack of mordant has occurred in this Euroleague, even though they finished the regular phase as the leader.

It turns out that in the quarterfinals against Bayern Munich, the azulgrana team went ahead twice and wasted the advantage twice.

“We shouldn't have reached the fifth game, but it's normal in Euroleague

, the rivals are very difficult.

But I don't like to make excuses: we haven't played some games as we should have”, agreed Mirotic, always the Barça compass.

“You have to be honest.

How many series have we won away from home since I've been here as a coach?

Never.

We are not going to lie.

With this team it is what it is”, added the coach;

“But we are prepared to suffer.

There is no other”.

And they won to get into the Final Four, where the team, in the semifinals against Madrid, suffered another of their short circuits because they went from winning by 11 points at the end of the second quarter to losing at the end.

Being so close to playing another final, getting 52 points in the second half is not serious.

But this has happened to us many times.

We are a talented team, but we don't know how to kill rivals or series.

It is very difficult for me to accept”, lamented Jasikevicius.

Speak knowingly.

Last year, also in the quarterfinals of the Euroleague, Xavi Pascual's Zenit Saint Petersburg demanded that he reach the fifth game.

Done, stretching the series to the maximum, which was repeated in the

Endesa League

Although, in the final he was able to beat Madrid on the fast track.

"But Barça has a dangerous ability to disappear in different sections of the matches that ends up being very destabilizing," remarks former player Nacho Solozábal for

.

"I don't know where the solution lies, maybe changing the coach, I don't know, but it's clear that the team has a problem with this issue", explained Jasikevicius before beating Olympiacos in the fight for third European place.

A defect to be solved in the

, at the moment against Gran Canaria and in case of winning the series against the winner of Joventut-Tenerife.

In the final, supposedly, Madrid would await him, forced to win so as not to remain blank for two years.

The same demand that Barça has to validate the club's strong commitment, since it was supposed to be the favorite and dominant in Europe, and it has only won the Cup.

You can follow EL PAÍS Deportes on