Real Madrid-Olympiacos: gunning for a place in the Euroleague final
Last season's champions and runners-up meet tonight in the semi-finals at the Uber Arena in Berlin (9:00pm CEST).
Real Madrid starts its tenth EuroLeague Final Four since 2011 tonight. Our team face Olympiacos in the second semi-final at the Uber Arena in Berlin. It will be a repeat of the last final of the competition in Kaunas, where Chus Mateo's team won their Eleventh title with Llull's impossible shot. Today we are looking for a ticket to the third consecutive final after 2022 and 2023 in a historic rivalry that has left great memories for Madrid fans.
It is a match with a great history. One of the all-time greats that will determine the second finalist of the Euroleague 2024. Real Madrid's 11 titles against Olympiacos' 3. The 52nd chapter in the history of the competition with four finals in between, three of them won by our team (Zaragoza 1995, Madrid 2015 and Kaunas 2023), but only one precedent in the semi-finals. It was in the 1978/79 season with a group of six teams and ties played over two leg. Madrid won both games against the Greek team (113-72 and 97-101).
We go into it having played the best Regular Season ever, with 27 wins, and after an impeccable playoff with a 3-0 win over Baskonia. Olympiacos was fifth in the first phase, with 22 wins, and beat Barça in the quarter-finals with home-court advantage by 2-3. The confidence in both teams is high. But this season, we have beaten the Greek team in both games (71-77 in Athens and 90-85 at the WiZink Center). The difference then was made by Madrid's team performance, which in both duels had five players in double figures in PIR. Musa (19.5 points) and Hezonja (16.5) were the most outstanding players in the games against today's opponents.
Aiming for third straight final
Olympiacos is the most similar to Madrid in terms of competing and never giving up. They are still a very physical team and are the team that recovers the most turnovers in the Euroleague. They have a very complete inside game with the height of Fall, Milutinov and Petrusev, and the versatility of Peters or Sikma. In addition, Papanikolau has stepped up as a leader and has a group of quality outside players such as Canaan, McKissic, Walkup and former Madrid player Williams-Goss. Madrid has shown more offensive potential. They have the best attack in the competition with 89 points on average, almost 11 more than the Greeks, who do not reach 79. It will be the first time in three years that we have an opponent other than Barcelona in the semi-finals. We have reached the final in both. Tonight, in the Uber Arena, where we have never lost (10 wins), we seek our 21st final, the second in the German city after 1980.