Many countries had their Cup games yesterday and TB presents you everything that happened in Turkey, Greece, Croatia, Serbia where some extraordinary things happened. Also check out the schedule of Cup games in Spain, Italy and more.
GREECE:
In Greece Olympiacos did not have any troubles beating PAOK for the 2nd leg of the semi-final, 89-61. And if that result was expected, Panathinaikos defeat in Thessaloniki by Aris was not. The Greens lost 74-70, but due to winning the 1st leg by 29 points they made it to the final.
This was the first loss to a Greek team, other than Olympiacos, for Panathinaikos in the last two years. The Panathinaikos-Olympiacos Cup Final is scheduled for March 6th.
TURKEY:
In Turkey where the Cup Final 8 is taking part in Kayseri, Efes Pilsen fell victim of a Besiktas‘ buzzer beater, for the second time this season. In the other quarter final Trabzonspor easily beat Aliaga 72-62.
The remaining two quarter finals will be played today: Galatasaray vs Olin and Fenerbahce vs Banvit. The semi finals will be played tomorrow while the final will take place on Sunday.
CROATIA:
The moss bizzare game, however, was played in the Croatian Cup semi final between Cedevita and Zadar. Cedevita which is probably the wealthiest club of the Adriatic and with a deep squad and bench lost to Zadar, who is placed last in Adriatic League standings.
And if you think that things like that happen all the time, you’re wrong. Zadar, who won the game (83-82) thanks to a buzzer beater, played the entire game without making a single substitution. Their starting five squad played the entire forty minutes. And from those five, only one player was over the age of 22. The defeat was so embarrassing that Cedevita coach Aco Petrovic resigned immediately after the game.
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In the second semi-final Zagreb won the local derby against Cibona, 93-86.
The Zadar-Zagreb final will take place today at 19:00 CET.
SERBIA:
The surprises on x-Yugo soil did not end there as FMP Zeleznik knocked Hemofarm (93-88) out of the Serbian Cup. In the other quarter final Red Star overcame Radnicki Basket easily, 81-69.
The other two quarter finals are scheduled for today: Radnicki Kragujevac – OKK Belgrade and Partizan – Mega Vizura. The semi finals will be played tomorrow while the final is scheduled for Sunday.
ISRAEL:
In Israel we had the semi finals on Monday where Barak Netanya barely beat second division club Hapoel Tel Aviv 78-77 while Maccabi Tel Aviv cruised past Maccabi Ashdod 98-61. The final between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Barak Netanya will be played tonight 20:30 local time.
SPAIN:
To the West now, where the Copa del Rey Final 8 is starting today in Madrid with Valladolid-Valencia and Real Madrid-Gran Canaria games. The competition will continue tomorrow with the rest two semi finals: Basque derby between Caja Laboral and Bilbao Basket and Catalan derby between Joventut and Barcelona.
The semi finals will be played on Saturday and the final on Sunday. And on contrary to Greece, where the final will be played with 1500 fans in a 8000 capacity area with the rest 6500 seats working as buffer zones, the Spanish fans will peacefully co-exist in the arena.
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ITALY:
Staying in the civilised world, the Italian Cup Final 8 will also be taking part in Torino. It starts today with two games: Montepaschi Siena-Scavolini and Bologna-Montegranaro and will be continued tomorrow with AJ Milano-Avellino and Cantu-biella games.
The semi finals will be played on Saturday and the final on Sunday.
