Fenerbahçe Beko are one win from the 2026 Final Four after taking a 2-0 lead over zalgiris Kaunas into Game 3. Wednesday night at Zalgirio Arena in Kaunas gives Sarunas Jasikevicius a chance to close out the club he once knew from the other side.
A Fenerbahçe win would send them to Athens, while Zalgiris would need to keep the series alive long enough to force it back to Istanbul. The first two games in Istanbul already shifted the pressure to Kaunas after 89-78 and 86-74 losses for the Lithuanian side.
Jasikevicius Returns to Kaunas
Jasikevicius goes back to Zalgirio Arena with a sweep within reach. His team finished the regular season fourth at 24-14, one spot ahead of Zalgiris at 23-15, and has carried that edge into the quarterfinals.
The contrast is sharper because Zalgiris swept both regular-season meetings between the teams this year. That made the playoff split of the opening two games in Istanbul harder to see coming, especially against a Zalgiris side that entered the postseason averaging 87.6 points per game and nearly 19.4 assists per contest.
Fenerbahçe’s Playoff Grip
Fenerbahçe’s 2-0 lead is built on control at both ends. They held Zalgiris to 78 points in Game 1 and 74 in Game 2, turning the series into a lower-scoring matchup than the regular-season numbers suggested.
That matters because Zalgiris came into the playoffs as the more productive attack on paper, while Fenerbahçe posted 81.9 points per game. The quarterfinal has flipped on execution rather than profile, with Fenerbahçe making the better use of the first two games.
History Favors Fenerbahçe
The series also fits a longer pattern between the clubs. Fenerbahçe lead 23-13 across 36 EuroLeague meetings, and they have already beaten Zalgiris in a 3-1 playoff series in 2019 as well as a Final Four semifinal in 2018.
For Fenerbahçe, this run would extend a recent habit of reaching the last stage. They made five straight Final Four editions from 2015 to 2019, won the title in 2017, returned in 2024, and won it again in 2025. Game 3 now sits between that record and another trip to Athens.
