Zvezda seeks return to glory at ANGT Belgrade

Mar 24, 2021 by David Hein, EuroLeague.net Print
Zvezda seeks return to glory at ANGT Belgrade

For several years, the biggest storyline of the Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament Belgrade was if anybody could beat local side U18 Crveza Zvezda mts Belgrade. This time around, the question is whether the 2014 U18 continental champion can finally reclaim first place in the Serbian capital after U18 Mega Soccerbet Belgrade and U18 Partizan NIS Belgrade took top honors the past two seasons. Mega is looking to start the road to a third ANGT Championship Game – and hoping the third time is a charm. The three Belgrade clubs will duke it out at FMP Arena from March 26 to 28 alongside U18 Buducnost VOLI Podgorica of Montenegro, U18 Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana of Slovenia, Russia's U18 Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar, U18 Maccabi Tel Aviv of Israel and Romanian club U18 U-BT Cluj Napoca, which will be making its debut in the competition.

There will be two four-team groups with each team playing each other in round-robin style. The two group winners will square off on Sunday in the first-place game with the victor of that contest locking up the third qualifying spot at the ANGT Finals. U18 FC Barcelona booked the first ticket to the ANGT Finals after winning the ANGT Valencia in December. U18 Real Madrid followed suit by taking first place at the ANGT Istanbul last week. The remaining five teams to compete in the field at the ANGT Finals will be determined by wild cards.

Group A includes Zvezda, Partizan, Maccabi and Cluj. Zvezda dominated this qualifying tournament from 2011 to 2018, taking first place each year and accordingly advancing to the ANGT Finals. Zvezda won the U18 European trophy in 2014 and reached the ANGT Championship Game in 2015 and 2016 as well. Zvezda lost to Mega in the 2019 ANGT Belgrade first-place game, snapping a winning streak of 38 games. Zvezda, however, received a wild card to the ANGT Finals in 2019 and went 2-1 there. Last season, Zvezda crashed to sixth place, going 1-2 in the group stage and then losing to Olimpija as well. The local side will try to reclaim the trophy this year. Partizan enters the event after winning the ANGT Belgrade for the first time last season. Partizan beat Zvezda on a Lazar Stefanovic layup with 1.7 seconds left to reach the first-place game, where it knocked off U18 CFBB Paris to qualify for the ANGT Finals for the first time. The COVID-19 pandemic, however, denied Partizan a chance to compete at the end-of-season event. Now Partizan will try to repeat its first-place showing. Maccabi finished fourth at the ANGT Belgrade last season after going 1-2 in the group stage. The Israeli champion took second place at the ANGT Munich in the 2018-19 season. The final team in the group is Cluj from Romania, which will be making its ANGT debut.

Group B is made up of Olimpija, Buducnost, Lokomotiv and Mega. Olimpija will be playing in the ANGT competition for the 13th time in the last 14 seasons. Last season it placed fifth at the ANGT Belgrade after knocking off Zvezda with a 2-1 record in the group stage. Buducnost has not played in the ANGT since 2015-16 when it was winless at the ANGT Belgrade. It will be the club’s fifth appearance. Lokomotiv will be participating for the second time after the Russian side took seventh place at the 2018-19 ANGT Kaunas. Mega took first place in Belgrade in the 2018-19 season and reached the ANGT Championship Game for a second time following 2017. Last season, Mega took third place in Belgrade after losing to Olimpija in the group stage.