EuroLeague: Zalgiris Challenges Champion Fenerbahce After Dominating Head-to-Head Matchups

One of the most attractive EuroLeague 2025/26 playoff series begins with Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul hosting Zalgiris Kaunas on Tuesday at 19:45 CEST. The defending champion starts its title defense with the obligation to protect home court against a rival arriving in form, without fear, and with favorable head-to-head records this season.

The Lithuanian squad already knows how to beat Fenerbahce. In fact, they have defeated them in both regular season matchups, including the most recent one in Istanbul last March with an 82-92 victory, a game led by Dustin Sleva's 18 points. That fact reinforces the confidence of a Zalgiris team arriving in Turkey in one of its best moments of the year.

While the Kaunas team closed the regular season with six wins in their last seven games, Fenerbahce suffered a much more irregular final stretch. The Ottoman squad lost five of their last six games, although they managed to preserve home-court advantage, a key detail in a best-of-five series.

One of the major storylines will be on the sidelines. Sarunas Jasikevicius faces a rival coaching staff that includes Tomas Masiulis, his former assistant for seven seasons. Both know each other perfectly, so the tactical battle is likely to be decided more by execution, discipline, and attention to detail than by strategic surprises.

On the individual level, Fenerbahce will look to impose its defense through the versatility of Nicolo Melli and Talen Horton-Tucker, while creative responsibility will fall on the experience of Nando De Colo, who faces a possible last opportunity to win another continental title before his retirement this summer.

At Zalgiris, much of the attention will be on Sylvain Francisco, a finalist in the season MVP voting and the team's offensive leader, plus the balance that Nigel Williams-Goss brings in playmaking and defense.

The major interior threat will be Moses Wright. The center is going through a spectacular stretch and has averaged 14.5 points and 11.5 rebounds over his last four games, numbers that explain much of Zalgiris' competitive growth down the stretch.

Fenerbahce has the home-court advantage and the weight of being the champion, but Zalgiris arrives with confidence, momentum, and the certainty that they have already beaten their rival twice this season. Everything points to a long, physical, and extremely demanding series from the opening tip.