A miracle performed once again!
Olympiacos forced the whole of Europe to gasp in admiration, beat CSKA Moscow 82-78 and qualified for the final of the most difficult not worthy Euroleague in years.
The Greek Champions beat CSKA Moscow 82-78 for the fourth time in a Final Four, qualified for the Istanbul Final Four final and will be playing against Fenerbahnce on Sunday, May 21 at 20.00 CET.
The game began with the Giannis Sfairopoulos team imposing a low tempo. Hence a 9-9 tie at 6’. However, the Russians ran a partial 7-0 and were leading 16-9 before the 18-12 of the first quarter was recorded.
In the second quarter, Mantzaris and Papanikolaou completely changed the course of the game and with continuous threes tied the game at 20 points. However, a new partial streak by CSKA, with De Colo and mainly with Teodosic leading the offense, once again sent the difference to -8 (28-20). The Russians were maintaining the margin at double digits (33-23, 40-30) before half time closed at 40-33.
The Piraeus team took its turn running a partial and with a 12-4 run had a two point game (44-42), Papanikolaou kept doing a great job, the same for Printezis, Spanoulis began entering the game equation and the match up was now a derby. Each time the Russians were leading by 6 – 7 points, Olympiacos was quick to shrink the difference. Spanoulis and Green were keeping a very close score, Mantzaris was also of great help and it was at that point that Olympiacos took matters in their own hands. The greatest player in the history of European basketball, once again performed a miracle and with five points in a row gave our team the lead, Green sent Olympiacos to +3 and the final 82-78 found the Giannis Sfairopoulos’ troops celebrating the qualification to the final.
The quarters: 18-12, 40-33, 64-60, 78-82.
CSKA Moscow (Itoudis): De Colo 16, Τeodosic 23 (4), Augustine 6, Fritzon, Jackson 12 (2), Vorontsevich 2, Higgins 6, Khryapa 3, Kourbanov 2, Heins 8.
Olympiacos (Sfairopoulos): Green 8 (2), Birch 4, Young, Papapetrou 3, Spanoulis 14 (1 3p, 6as), Αgravanis 8 (2), Milutinov 5, Printezis 14 (1 3p, 7reb), Papanikolaou 14 (4 3p, 9reb), Mantzaris 12 (4 3p, 6reb).