Belgrade, capital of Serbia, host of the Final Four that starts this afternoon in style with its two semifinals, is heating up like a pot. Olympiacos-Efes (6:00 p.m.) will open the menu and the duel between Barcelona and Real Madrid (9:00 p.m.) will close the evening. From the national perspective, it is the confrontation between Spaniards that monopolizes all the covers but, at street level, the match between Turks and Greeks is the important one. The Greek hell, extinguished during the pandemic, is reborn in the Balkans with an uncontrollable tide. More than 11,000 Olympiacos fans have traveled to Belgrade to support their team, the underdog in this final phase of the Euroleague, but which has been determined to knock down the current champion.
The Greeks outnumber their rivals in the stands (2,000 between Barcelona, Madrid and Efes) and, furthermore, they have the help of half the city, as Estrella Roja, one of the two teams from the capital together with Partizan is twinned with Olympiacos. An algorithm that has allowed all the streets in the center to be dyed red. Drums pound and screams drown out any other sound.
Dozens of policemen parade in the vicinity of the Plaza de la República. The reason is not only sporty. Since last Monday, Belgrade and all of Serbia have been living with bomb threats. Several schools, shopping centers and public buildings have been evacuated. The reason is that the government, despite rejecting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has not joined the economic sanctions on the territory led by Vladimir Putin, which has thrown it into the center of the target. In the hours before the start of the Final Four, journalists are quickly evicted from the Stark Arena, the majestic venue for the event, 20,000 seats, because the security forces are preparing for a last and intense sweep in search of some device.
Serbia is in the middle of the bridge. For one thing, NATO bombing in 1999 still reverberates over the city. English, a common connection bridge between nationalities, points to the non-tribe in the Slavic country. Rough and suspicious of foreigners (a saleswoman can refuse to sell you a bottle of water up to four times), the city is preparing a new Final Four (it already did it in 2018), because despite its character, it loves sport above all. things. The first sign of civilization one sees when entering Belgrade is a huge canvas on a huge building with a photo and a single sentence. “MVP”. This is how the country celebrates that, for the second consecutive year, Nikola Jokic has been named the best player in the NBA. The virtuous Serbian center, however, does not reach the height of Novak Djokovic, an absolute deity who even announces colognes and household utensils on television. The sport pulls them towards the West and when one approaches the facilities, the flags of Serbia and the European Union hang from the same threads.
Barcelona and Real Madrid arrive at the meeting with their shields and their powerful templates, enough to present a candidacy. Many shirts, not only worn by Spaniards, are seen by Nikola Mirotic. The Montenegrin with a Spanish passport, orthodox like Djokovic, is one of the biggest claims in the competition. After winning the MVP of the regular phase, the power forward is looking to round off his career with the Euroleague, an elusive title to date, both for him and for Barcelona, which has not tied it since 2010. Madrid, after a season full of ups and downs , was reborn in theory a few weeks ago after overwhelmingly eliminating Maccabi from Tel Aviv. The whites are once again looking for the complicity of Belgrade. In it they raised their last Euroleague in 2018, the tenth. The pot is seasoned, Belgrade burns.
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