Euroleague Basketball: AS Monaco, seeking revenge, returns to the Final Four

"We're two wins away from the biggest title in the club's history." Point guard Matthew Strazel summed up the major challenge facing AS Monaco Basket, starting Friday, May 23, in Abu Dhabi. Qualified for the Euroleague Final Four for the second time in three seasons, the Roca Team will face Frenchman Evan Fournier's Olympiakos Piraeus in the semifinals. If Monaco wins, they will play in the final of the prestigious continental competition on Sunday against Panathinaikos (Greece) or Fenerbahçe (Turkey).

At a press conference on Monday, 22-year-old Matthew Strazel seemed unfazed by the deadline. The two-time reigning French champion, the club from the Principality has become the standard-bearer for French basketball in Europe. Since its first participation in the Euroleague (in 2021-2022), Monaco has consistently reached the playoffs, and the club from the Rock reached the semi-finals of the competition in its second season – a feat not achieved by a French club since 1997.

The Monegasques had already been eliminated at the gates of the final by Olympiakos, after a chaotic third quarter. "These things happen. We must learn the lesson and not let it happen a second time." Monaco coach Vassilis Spanoulis commented at a press conference. This year, after a narrow victory over Barcelona in the fifth match of the quarter-finals (85-84), Roca Team secured revenge against the Piraeus club, the competition's favorites after finishing first in the league phase.

"There is inevitably this taste of revenge. We keep in mind what happened two years ago, but we arrive with a completely different state of mind." insists Matthew Strazel. Aged 20 at his first Final Four, the player has since moved up a gear, notably winning the silver medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics with Les Bleus. "This is only my second Final Four, but I feel like I have enough experience to know what it takes to win this match ," he says. "We're coming in with a little more confidence than we did in 2023."

In addition to Strazel, several players who were there two years ago are still wearing the Monaco jersey, starting with Mike James. The all-time leading scorer in Euroleague history, the 34-year-old American guard and point guard was one of the key players in the qualification against Barcelona, ​​scoring 20 points and the decisive basket with 55 seconds left in the game.

Built around a well-oiled collective, the club has recruited several proven players, such as the German world champion (2023) Daniel Theis. Arriving this season on the Rock, the 33-year-old center played seven years in the NBA. Another major recruit: the Greek pivot Georgios Papagiannis. Injured since March, the 27-year-old player was decisive upon his return in the decisive match against Barcelona (17 points). "I take my hat off to him. He didn't play for one or two months, and he was ready. That's what I expect from my players," greeted Vassilis Spanoulis.

The 42-year-old coach, who arrived in November 2024, can already make history for the Principality club. “If there is someone who can help us win the Euroleague, it’s him,” assures Matthew Strazel. A former Olympiakos star, a three-time Euroleague winner – including two with the Greek club, in 2012 and 2013 – Spanoulis was also a European champion with Greece in 2005. Retired from the courts since 2021, he took over the management of the Greek national team two years later, leading Giannis Antetokounmpo’s team to the quarter-finals of the 2024 Olympics. “He ’s a character who’s not afraid of anything. And he knows how to spread that character in the locker room,” judged Oleksiy Yefimov, Monaco’s general manager, interviewed by RMC Sport , at the end of April.