Fenerbahçe earns Euroleague Final Four spot
ISTANBUL
Fenerbahçe Beko became the first-ever team to win a Game 5 as the road team to make to the 2024 Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four, by beating Monaco 80-79 on May 8 night.
Having last made it to the Final Four in 2019, Fenerbahçe will play a semifinal match in Berlin against Panathinaikos on May 24, when Real Madrid takes on Olympiacos in the other semifinal.
2017 Euroleague champion Fenerbahçe first reached the Final Four in 2015 and played in five consecutive Final Fours between 2015 and 2019.
The Istanbul club has gone 3-2 in semifinals, reaching the championship game in 2016, 2017 and 2018. This will be the second time that Fenerbahçe has taken part at the Final Four in Berlin, as the 2016 edition saw the Turkish club defeat Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz 88-77 in overtime in the semifinals before falling 96-101 in overtime to CSKA Moscow in the championship game.
Fenerbahçe made up for its championship game heartbreak in 2016 by returning to the title game one year later, and this time it came out on top after beating Olympiacos Piraeus 80-64. In 2018, Fenerbahçe would make it to the championship game for the third year in a row, but on that occasion, it lost to the Luka Doncic-led Real Madrid, 85-80.
Coach Jasikevicius, a four-time Euroleague champion as a player, is heading to his fourth straight Final Four appearance as a head coach, having gone to three in a row with Barcelona between 2021 and 2023. He also took Zalgiris Kaunas to the Final Four in 2018.
The Lithuanian tactician has reached one championship game, losing with Barcelona to Anadolu Efes Istanbul in 2021.
On the playing roster, Nick Calathes became a Euroleague champion in 2011, Sertaç Şanlı did so in 2021, and Melih Mahmutoglu is the only remaining member from Fenerbahçe’s 2017 triumph.