By Panos Katsiroumpas/ info@eurohoops.net
CSKA Moscow, Olympiacos, Real Madrid and Fenerbahce are ready for the battles of the semifinals of this year’s Final Four, which is going to be hosted in the Sinan Erdem Dome, and the Magnifying Glass is going to analyze the two big appointments for the readers of Eurohoops as only… we know!
In the first semifinal, the active European champions, CSKA Moscow – with Dimitiris Itoudis’s team wanting to win the EuroLeague for the second year in a row – are going up against Olympiacos, who are the last team to achieve what CSKA Moscow are aiming for this season.
The two teams have encountered each other three times in the Final Four, with Olympiacos the winner of all three clashes. Their first clash was in the Final of 2012, in the same arena the competition is being held this year. Olympiacos, with a basket by Georgios Printezis in the last second, defeated CSKA and won their second title. The other two victories for Olympiacos came in semifinals, in 2013 in London and in 2015 in Madrid. In the two games this season, CSKA Moscow prevailed 75-81 in the Peace & Friendship Stadium and 90-86 in Moscow in the game that closed out the regular season.