After serving a one-game ban, he was key for Real Madrid in Round 4
The influence of Facu Campazzo was key against Panathinaikos
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Regular Season
Round 4 of 34
Group Regular Season
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Facu Campazzo was instrumental as Real Madrid gained a measure of revenge for last season’s championship game defeat to Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens, downing the Greek giant 90-86 in the Spanish capital on Thursday night.
Regardless of the latest edition of one of European basketball’s rivalries between the Whites and the Greens, it was a big game for Chus Mateo’s men as they aimed to bounce back from Tuesday’s loss at Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz and avoid sinking to a 1-3 record.
Campazzo missed that defeat in northern Spain through suspension, but he was back on Thursday night and clearly ready to make up for lost time – understandably showing more energy than many of the players on both teams who had been in action just 48 hours earlier.
The all-action Argentine did a lot of everything as he spent nearly 32 minutes on the floor, grabbing 5 rebounds including 3 at the offensive end, a pair of steals and leading his team in both scoring and distributing, combining 19 points with 6 assists.
But the point guard adopted a selfless tone as he played down those numbers. “The stats are for you guys, not for me!” he laughed.
“I’m very happy to help the team get a win. We don’t have to worry about the offense – everyone and anyone can score in this team. We’ve got to take advantage of that and improve as a team on defense. That’s the challenge this season.”
Real controlled the majority of the action, leading by as many as 17 points towards the end of the third quarter. But Panathinaikos showed the mentality of champions to keep fighting until the end, and the Spanish team was never able to move into cruise control before eventually taking the victory.
Campazzo underlined the amount of effort needed to win the game, saying: “This year we’ve got to work way more than last year. We got so many new players, the other teams know us very well, they know how to play us, so we’ve got to improve as a group.
“So we’re in that process now, but we needed this win. I’m very happy because the team played really well, everyone who played tonight did something positive and made an impact on the game. We played good basketball. We shared the ball, we played good defense, we controlled the rebounds and we ran. And I think when we run, we’re a better team.”
Sharing the ball, playing good defense, taking rebounds and running… Campazzo certainly did all those things and more, helping to give Real Madrid’s season lift off.