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Olympiacos, Real Madrid face off in a top-of-the-table matchup

Olympiacos, Real Madrid face off in a top-of-the-table matchup

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5 Lesezeit

Geoff Gillingham

Olympiacos, Real Madrid face off in a top-of-the-table matchup

Turkish Airlines EuroLeague fans are in for a treat this Friday night, as Olympiacos Piraeus (12-7) welcomes Real Madrid (13-6) to Peace and Friendship Stadium. This meeting between the team currently fourth in the standings and the league leader has plenty of history, and a new page in this rivalry will be written when they take to the floor in Greece.

Both sides are in pretty good shape coming into this game, as Olympiacos is 3-1 in its last four after a blip that saw it suffer back-to-back defeats, while Real is 4-1 in its last five and was able to record successive road wins in the double-round week last week.

Should the Reds make it four wins in their last five on Friday night, they will become the co-leader in the EuroLeague. Conversely, if Los Blancos are able to record another victory, they would end Round 20 on top of the pile for a second week in a row.

When Real hosted Olympiacos at WiZink Center in Round 3, a shootout ensued. The Reds were able to come away with an 87-89 victory, but only after a stellar performance by Sasha Vezenkov, who had a 23-point, 12-rebound double-double. Veteran guard Kostas Sloukas was also key, recording 14 points and 7 assists. Most importantly, in the final seconds of the game, Sloukas executed a pump fake on Edy Tavares before scoring a layup to give Olympiacos the win.

That was the last contest between these two titans of European basketball, but they have had some memorable games in the past. Real edges the battle 16-19 since the turn of the century, but they are 1-1 in the biggest game of them all: the EuroLeague Championship Game.

In 2013, Olympiacos beat Real 100-88 in London, England to secure its third EuroLeague crown and second in a row. There are three survivors for the Reds from that day – head coach Georgios Bartzokas, guard Sloukas and forward Kostas Papanikolaou – while there are three members of Real's title-losing team that are on its roster: Sergio Llull, Rudy Fernandez and Sergio Rodriguez.

One year later, they met again in the playoffs. This time, Real exacted revenge against Olympiacos after winning 3-2 in the best-of-five series, with each team winning all of its home games. The difference is that Real had Game 5 on its home floor after securing a higher seed, and that home advantage paid dividends. However, Los Blancos went on to lose the championship game to Maccabi Electrica Tel Aviv, falling 86-98 in overtime.

Then, in 2015, Real got one over Olympiacos once again, this time in the championship game in Madrid, Spain after winning 78-59. With that victory, Los Blancos grabbed their ninth EuroLeague title. Coach Bartzokas was not in charge of the Reds at that time and Papanikolaou had departed the club after the 2013 triumph, but Sloukas, Llull, Fernandez and Rodriguez were all key contributors that day.

In the years following that matchup, Real and Olympiacos have only ever faced off in the regular season, with the record between the two over that period standing at 8-6 in Real's favor. What's more, the Reds have gone 4-2 at home since the 2015 championship game, including a 74-68 win over Los Blancos in Piraeus last season.

On that occasion, just two Olympiacos players got into double figures – Vezenkov with 16 points and Tyler Dorsey with 12 – but it found a way to largely keep Real quiet, as only ex-Reds guard Nigel Williams-Goss and Walter Tavares found joy; the former finished with 16 points, while the latter had 15.

Fast-forward to this upcoming game and two of the players that shined in Piraeus last year, Dorsey and Williams-Goss, will not be on the floor. Dorsey left for pastures new last summer, while Williams-Goss has a fever and has not made the trip to Greece. Real is also without Sergio Rodriguez and Alberto Abalde due to injury, but Gabriel Deck could feature after last playing in Round 16. Fernandez has also flown to Greece for this one after recovering from an injury, so he could make his second appearance of the season, following his almost 17-minute outing against LCLC ASVEL Villeurbanne in Round 15.

For Olympiacos, Sloukas seems set to return following his absence against Virtus Segafredo Bologna last Friday night, while Vezenkov is likely to be in better shape after dealing with flu during a 22-point, 10-rebound night in Italy one week ago. Those two were vital when the Reds won in Madrid earlier this season, and they will have to perform well again if their team is to win this Friday night.

In fact, many EuroLeague fans may be taken back to 2013 at certain points in the game, as Coach Bartzokas, Sloukas and Papanikolaou are on the Olympiacos side of the divide, whereas Llull and Fernandez are on the other. It just adds another layer to an already mouth-watering contest.

A great spectacle often takes place whenever Olympiacos and Real face off, and with so much on the line, that is likely to be the case once again. So, whatever plans you have, cancel them and make sure you're available to watch this epic battle at 20:00 CET. It should be a lot of fun!