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In the first semi-final of the final four in London, Olympiakos B.C. won a ticket for the finals of the Euroleague, after winning 69 -52 against CSKA Moscow.

The same thing happened with the same players, but on another basketball court. Last year, this happened in Istanbul, and this year - in London. However, the end is one and the same: Olympiakos is celebrating, CSKA is defeated. In the decisive match, the champions of Europe used their energy reserves to the maximum at the O2 Arena pitch in London and played defence which was reminiscent of that of Ivkovic, thanks to which they limited Ettore Messina’s team to 52 points. For Olympiakos, this will be the sixth final in its history and the team will be able to defend last year’s title against the winner of the match between Barcelona and Real Madrid.

The Greek team dominated completely even where CSKA was invincible in theory – rebounds under the basket (41 vs. 29); and they played great defence which limited CSKA to only 7 of 21 attempts. The game’s top scorers for Olympiakos included Kyle Hines who scored 13 points (plus 10 rebounds) and Pero Antic (13 points), and for the Russians - Sonny Weems with13 points.

In fact, the Russians were visible on the court only in the first 3 minutes when they were leading by 8-4 thanks to the three points scored by Hryapa. In the next minute the score was 8-10 for Olympiakos and the first quarter ended with 24-17 for the Greek team.

Olympiakos was putting pressure on the entire court, stopping the Russian offence, while Hines and Antic were forwarding successfully and thus increased the lead (25-38 in the 16th minute, 27-40 in 18th). In the 23rd minute the score was 28-45. Then, the third foul of Spanoulis came and the big difference made the team slacken their efforts. George Barzokas’s players made a lot of mistakes, lost concentration and the Russians managed to reduce the difference to 36-47. However, Olympiakos’s players quickly came back again and increased their lead.

Later, Olympiakos was leading with 20 points, thanks to Perperoglou’s three points. The Russians lost their composure and started fouling. The match ended with three points scored by the Russian team, with which its score reached 52 points.