Madrid beat Bayern as Llull makes Euroleague history

It was an amazing opening night of 2025 at the Movistar Arena where Real Madrid defeated Bayern Munich in a historic fixture for Llull, who became the most-capped player in the Euroleague. Chus Mateo's side controlled the game at both ends of the court to claim their tenth win in the competition. There were strong performances from Hezonja (14 points) and Musa (15) with Campazzo again decisive in the final minutes.
Real Madrid started the first game of the year very well in defense, with Tavares dominating under the basket (5 rebounds) and forcing the Germans into mistakes. For his part, Abalde took the initiative in attack alongside Musa to make it 15-8 (min. 7). And then came the most anticipated moment of the game when Llull stepped onto the court, thus becoming the most-capped player in the history of the Euroleague (426). After a standing ovation from the Movistar Arena, our captain gave the fans a three-pointer in his first involvement. Madrid's defence resisted any possible response from the visitors and Hezonja was left to put the icing on the cake in a strong first quarter (23-14).

A good first half

Madrid kept their energy and aggression levels high, upping their focus at the back in the opening stages of the second quarter. Andrés Feliz spearheaded some fine collective play that delivered results, taking the scores to 31-18 (13’). Bayern then enjoyed a positive spell and looked like getting back into the game (33-28), but it didn't last long. Campazzo and Hezonja quickly linked up to fire our team to a blistering 14-2 run inside just five minutes and close out a perfect first half (47-30).

Bayern began to tighten things up in defense, but their lack of accuracy up the other end continued to hold them back. Tavares was the primary obstacle for the visitors in the paint, coupled with some impressive work to hinder any shooting from three. That allowed the madridistas to maintain a comfortable advantage (57-41), and although the Germans kept at it through Napier at the free-throw line (7 points), it was ultimately to no avail. Musa was relentless once again (100% shooting accuracy), doing his bit to extend Madrid’s lead to +12 by the end of quarter three (62-50).

Campazzo makes sure of the win 

Chus Mateo’s boys now had only 10 minutes separating them from victory in the first clash of the new year, but Bayern weren’t about to roll over, and Edwards made that patently clear. With a devastating display of point-scoring, he brought the deficit down to just nine points with five minutes left on the clock (73-64; min. 35). At 80-73, our boys kept cool heads, and Campazzo came to the fore to finally put the game to bed. Besides a fantastic win, Madrid also took a superior basket average to get 2025 underway in the best possible manner.