The own goal of the “Friends” of AEK and the Cube of Prometheus

The Red Sea is quite far from Jerusalem, but the red flags of Hapoel, which has a house – fire anyway, looked like a red (already stormy) sea, drowning all AEK’s ambitions for a big surprise.

Because the way the scene had developed after the serious incidents in Liosia and the severe punishment by the “Union”, Golgotha ​​was a matter of course. AEK followed him every step of the way as the Israelis raced to the Basketball Champions League Final Four.

At the same time, Prometheus was very good. Not named after Patras, but after a small town (only 15,000 inhabitants). Slobozhanske (pronounce) in central Ukraine near Dnipro. Where, if you don’t remember, the bombs go off and the bullets whistle…

Now based in Riga, where it lost only once this year, it left no room for its eponymous team, from the capital of the Peloponnese, and its qualification for the “4” of the Eurocup came solemnly for the “Children of War”. amidst the apotheosis of Latvians and some Ukrainians who were in the field.

Zero so to the quotient for Greek basketball, which will again see the final phase of the two most important events – after the Euroleague – on television.

The years go by, but instead of going forward, we keep taking steps back. We see others moving forward without even being able to threaten them, caught in pathogens and an almost miserable reality.

It’s not just the fault of the jungle

The easiest thing for AEK is to throw them into the jungle of Jerusalem where the 11,000 fans (and certainly two or three thousand jumpers in addition to the platforms) created a hellish atmosphere. The own goal had been scored by his fans in Athens a week earlier, in a season already suffering from the ‘magic’ of the platform.

Good thing the penalty imposed by FIBA ​​included nothing worse than a hefty fine and empty stands throughout the next season in the BCL.

If AEK as an organization fails to control the minority of its fans that cause incidents, there will be no end to it. It will happen again, no matter how many appeals she makes, no matter how many excuses she makes, as we read in her recent announcement.

Of course, those who carried out the events in Lysia would never go to Israel. The AEK team experienced the “retaliation” either with the fireworks and excitement outside the hotel or with what they found inside the stalls, a stadium always “on fire” from excessive events. Causing trouble for a team with rabid fans is like trying your luck.

In these cases, if you really want to qualify, you should proceed as quietly as possible and put the opponent to sleep rather than adding fuel to the fire. However, we doubt whether those who made the episodes with Hapoel (as in the competition premiere with Rezzo Emilia) had basketball and AEK in mind. Everything else, yes…

✍ The difference between the two teams is less than 40 points. Hapoel would probably have progressed under normal circumstances (because they were the better team overall), but not in this sweeping way. The home team looked like… the Celtics. All contested balls ended up in the hands of Hapoel players who had 11/17 trebles while AEK finished the game with 14/50 shots (!), 9 assists and 16 errors. With these numbers, the result seems very plausible.

Somehow the ‘yellows’ slipped out of the limelight again, their successes in the BCL slowly began to fade and the bans didn’t stop at the mismanagement of an OEM’s financial arrangements, which seems to be a tightrope walk every year. Her overall performance this year was better in the second half and still hasn’t convinced her that she could make it to F4. The European season ends almost catastrophically. Will he be able to save the lot in the Greek league? For now Peristeri is waiting for her.

Until “8” it was fine …

Unlike AEK, Prometheus doesn’t leave the Eurocup that enthusiastically. His run was the best in all the years his home team has played in the competition. Defeating Prometheus in Riga would be a major breakthrough. The strange system of the competition sees knockout matches with home advantage of the strongest team, so it was very difficult for the Greek boys beforehand.

The momentum with which the Ukrainians went into the game was very high. Four or five times they snatched the ball through the hands of Christopoulos’ players while making incredible three-pointers, like that of Tkachenko without balance at the end of the half, or the two of Lipovi, who played as if he wanted to get at the avenge former of his team. Israel-Czech coach Ginzburg’s hosts were a click quicker, more energetic and certainly more on target as they secured their ticket to the semi-finals where they will face Ankara.

Shooting miserably (20/54 shots) with only Thomason in double figures Prometheus couldn’t have been luckier, they certainly aren’t as bad a team as they showed in this match and obviously their run to the ‘8’ be called satisfactory.

Will it come in handy in the championship playoffs? It will now appear that the very interesting duels against PAOK will begin.