The complicated situation in Real Madrid will make it difficult for the coach of Partizan before the matches in the Euroleague playoffs.
“Real Madrid lacks six players who could play in any of the strongest Euroleague teams,” said Partizan coach Željko Obradović, announcing the playoff series between the black and whites and the “royal club” in the Euroleague. It will be another 10 days until it starts, and in the meantime it will not be gratifying to ask “Žoca” too much about Madrid, because he and his associates will follow the information about the situation in the Spanish giants, who played few matches in the previous weeks and months with the same, strongest team. And that’s why it’s so hard to predict it all the way in advance.
In the previous period, a number of Real players did not play due to injuries. Former Partizan playmaker Nigel Williams Goss has been “out” for more than a month due to a groin injury, while the legendary Sergio Ljulj has been out of action for two and a half months since he injured his left knee, which he sustained on February 20, in the King’s Cup. in the Euroleague.
French center Vincent Poirier, one of the team’s best jumpers, played the last match in the Euroleague in a convincing defeat against Partizan on March 31, because ten days ago he had to have an emergency operation on his appendix, which caused him to miss two rounds of the Euroleague and the first forecasts were not announced his performance in Barcelona this weekend. On the other hand, it is certain that the legendary Rudi Fernandez will not play in the derby because of back pain, although he played against Maccabi in Tel Aviv on Thursday.
Unlike Rudi, Carlos Alosen, who has not played since February 2022 due to a torn cruciate ligament in his knee, has much more serious problems, as well as Anthony Randolph, a trophy-winning center winger who also underwent knee ligament surgery due to a total rupture in June, and played this season is only one Euroleague match – against Bayern on April 6.
While the participants of the Top 8 are getting ready for “the real thing” and for the main fights, it is certain that some players will go “over the pain” in the fight for the main prize – the Euroleague title. Even with so many injuries and daily changes in the team, Real achieved an excellent result in the league, finishing in third place, with the home field advantage secured. In the first season under the leadership of Ćus Mateo, the “Royals” secured the advantage of the home field, got a new record holder in the number of points scored, Džanan Musa, and there is no doubt that most of the mentioned players will at least be in a wider rotation, if not completely “mobilized” for match against Partizan.
The fact that they had such complicated weeks in the previous months will certainly not make Željko Obradović’s job in preparing the game any easier, and that is why he postponed the story about it for ten days, when the euphoria will reach its peak, and Partizan will go to Spain, to fight for a place in the Final. for.