Real Madrid easily beats the leader Monaco

Easy victory for the meringues (94-72) in a WiZink Center that is already shedding sponsorship

Real Madrid won this Thursday by a large 94-72 against AS Monaco during matchday 17 of the regular Euroleague league, thanks to a good team performance led by forwards Dzanan Musa and Mario Hezonja along with point guard Facundo Campazzo, suspects typical of each merengue reaction when things look worse.

At the WiZink Center, which this Christmas will say goodbye to its sponsorship to give way to the name of Movistar Arena from 2025, the locals took the lead on the scoreboard very early (6-5) and did not let go throughout the match, leaving reinforced morale and game in a difficult week against the fittest teams in the tournament.

Having defeated Paris Basketball last Tuesday, Chus Mateo’s pupils faced another tough battle at home. And despite the threat of Mike James monopolizing the scoring, Monaco succumbed as soon as Musa scored his first triple and Gaby Deck skillfully added points within the ‘paint’.

Circumstantial scores by Eli John Ndiaye and Walter Tavares in the low post led to the emergence of Campazzo and Hezonja in long-distance shots. After closing the first quarter with a favorable 29-22, Real Madrid put things in the middle (44-26) at the beginning of the second period.

Despite the visitor’s attempt at a comeback, thanks to Vitto Brown, Jordan Loyd and Donatas Motiejunas, the white team left it a mere anecdote to see themselves 44-34 on the venue’s electronic scoreboard. Not in vain, the 53-35 half-time score was a heavy burden for Vassilis Spanoulis, a coach who is being one of the revelations of the current Euroleague 2024/25.

Upon returning from the locker room, a drive to the basket by Campazzo and in which Loyd was fouled was the demonstration that the locals continued with their minds where they belonged. In fact, Real Madrid’s lead grew quickly (61-37) and barely slowed down, as the fans savored the +31 (76-45) after a free kick converted by Usman Garuba.

The bad news of the fourth and final period in the ranks of Real Madrid was the gray version of Andrés Feliz. In front, men like Petr Cornelie and Furkan Korkmaz woke up late in offensive tasks, joined by the discreet numbers of Motiejunas and Matthew Strazel; Only Mike James saved the honor of the Monegasque team.

That makeup by James on the scoreboard made the stopwatch end up showing the final 94-72, a victory that placed the Madridistas with a balance of 8-9 close to the ‘play-in’ zone; For its part, Monaco remained 11-6 in second place in the table, waiting for Paris (11-5) to play its pending duel against Fenerbahçe.

TECHNICAL SHEET.

–RESULT: REAL MADRID, 94 – AS MONACO, 72 (53-35, at halftime).

–TEAMS:

REAL MADRID: Feliz (5), Musa (22), Deck (12), Ndiaye (4) and Tavares (2) –initial quintet–; Llull (-), Campazzo (12), Hezonja (13), Abalde (8), Garuba (9), González (2) and Ibaka (5).

AS MONACO: James (19), Loyd (13), Tarpey (2), Brown (4) y Motiejunas (12) –quinteto inicial–; Papagiannis (-), Strazel (10), Blossomgame (2), Cornelie (4), Jaiteh (4), Begarin (-) y Korkmaz (2).

–PARTIALS: 29-22, 24-13, 24-12 and 17-25.

–REFEREES: Hordov, Peerandi and Rossi. No eliminated.

–PAVILLION: WiZink Center.