For a country accustomed to seeing its team on the throne almost every two years Euroleague10 years without a crown seems like too much!

Since the distant 1996, when Panathinaikos won the first trophy in Paris until 2013, which went to Olympic in London last, two Greek teams won overall 9 times in 18 Euroleague seasons.

The Greens have brought the trophy to Greece 6 times and the Red-Whites 3 more times, with an impressive record of one title every two years for our two teams.

This sweet habit has been missing from Greek basketball for the past decade. Panathinaikos didn’t even make it to the Final Four during this time, and Olympiakos, which played three times in Belgrade last year, was just happy to be part of it. He played in the final twice 2015 in Madrid and 2017 in Polis, but returned empty-handed, having failed to restore order and the impressive tradition that Greek basketball established at this event.

As the Greens continue to refrain from this big date, with their latest appearance in final four to date, since 2012 in Istanbul, the lot again falls on Olympiacos.

Like last year, this year he entered the final stretch of a long journey, and conditions are now better than ever: he reaches the Final Four for the first time, finishing 1st in the Euroleague regular season, being the absolute favorite against newcomer Monaco in the evening (18:00) the semi-final on Friday 19 May.

However, this is a strange crossover in the sense that there is a clear difference in quality and experience between the two teams, but on the other hand Monaco are the only team that managed to beat Olympiacos in both matches during the championship. regular season.

On the contrary, the “red-whites” prevailed in their meetings with the other two “heavyweights” of the other semi-final, having only victories in their games against Barcelona and Real Madrid!

This is the 12th Final Four for Olympiacos in his Euroleague history and he aims to come back from Kaunas with the 4th star on his jersey, after the ones he sewed on in Rome in 1997, in Polis in 2012 year and in London in 2013. The latter he won with Giorgos Bartzokas on the bench, who has two more Final Four matches, one with Lokomotiv Kuban in 2016 (he finished 3rd in Berlin) and once again with Olympiacos in the past year in Belgrade, where he was defeated in the minor final and finished 4th.

1) Tel Aviv, 1994

A bitter story, a huge missed opportunity for the Greek team’s first title in the then European Cup. Having survived the “Greek civil war” against Panathinaikos (77-72) in an atmosphere reeking of gunpowder, Olympiakos of Giannis Ioannidis reached the final as the absolute favorite against Badalona of Zeliko Obradovic. The “Red-Whites” confidently led the score, but a lot of missed shots and unjustified irritation in the end gave the Spanish team the opportunity to get close to the shooting range and bring the disappointment to the limit (59-57), with a three-pointer from Cornelius Thomson in dead time. It was a stage that has been haunting Olympiacos for many years.

2) Zaragoza 1995

Olympiacos won the semi-finals for the second year in a row (58-52) against Panathinaikos, taking advantage of an injury to Panagiotis Giannakis that weakened the Greens of the region in the second half. The final turned out to be hopeless from the very beginning: the Spanish team, coached by Zeljko Obradovic, again became the opponent. Real won easily 73-61, leaving him no edge. It was Giannis Ioannidis’ fifth attempt to win the Champions League and this time was unsuccessful. The first three were with Mars.

3) Rome 1997

The third time was… poisonous! Under Dušan Ivković and after a comfortable 74–65 win over Olympia Ljubljana in the semi-finals, Olympiacos dominated the final even more easily, where they beat Barcelona 73–58 to capture the first European trophy in their one-year history. the “first” success of “Panathinaikos” in Paris. He combined that, essentially, with winning the championship and the Cup, in an impressive ‘triple crown’. The big star of the “red-whites” was David Rivers, who scored a total of 54 points (28 + 26) in two matches of the “final four”. This defeat was the 5th for Barcelona in the final, so the team was called a “loser”.

4) Munich 1999

In their 4th Final Four appearance, Olympiacos failed to reach the final this time. He easily lost 87-71 to Žalgiris Kaunas in the semi-final and found some…consolation in his 74-63 victory over Timsysteme Bologna in the secondary final to give him 3rd place. This was Panagiotis Fasula’s 10th appearance in a Final Four game, rising to 1st place on the respective list ahead of Giannakis and Jimenez who had 9. In the final, Žalgiris defeated Kinder Bologna 82–74 to win trophy.

5) Berlin 2009

Olympiakos reappeared in the final four after a 10-year absence, but this time they were defeated (84–82) by Panathinaikos in the “Greek Civil War”. In the short final, the team of Panagiotis Giannakis suffered another defeat from Barcelona (95-79) and limited themselves to 4th place. Panathinaikos Obradovic won the trophy by beating CSKA Moscow 73-71 in a dramatic final to win 5 Euroleague trophies.

6) Paris 2010

The next attempt, 2nd in a row and 6th before that in total, was also unsuccessful. An 83-80 qualifying win in overtime (67-67 etc.) over Partizan took rival Olympiacos to the final of the Palais de Bercy in Barcelona, ​​this time without a happy ending. Led by Navarro, the Blaugrana won easily 86–68 to claim the second trophy in their history. Panagiotis Giannakis again became the coach of the “red-whites”.

7) Istanbul 2012

His absence from the Final Four in Barcelona in 2011, where Panathinaikos won the 6th and final Euroleague in their history, robbed Olympiacos of a four-match streak in the final stage of the competition as they also made it there the following year , in May 2013. In Polis, Olympiacos made history not only because they beat CSKA Moscow 62-61 in the final, but mainly because of the way they beat him: they were 19 points behind in the 3rd quarter (53-34) and when Dušan Ivković decided to use players from the bench, effectively giving up the game, there was an incredible turn that started with missed shots by Siskauskas (usually unmissable) 9 minutes before the final and ended with Printeza’s petekarti in dead time after Spanoulis’s assist! It was an epic defeat that brought a second trophy to Ivkovic and Olympiacos, who beat Barcelona 68-64 in the semi-finals to advance to the final.

8) London 2013

The one-by-one Euroleague victory came about in spectacular fashion, with Giorgos Bartzokas as the centerpiece, the first and only Greek coach to win this prestigious trophy! Olympiacos became the third team in the history of the competition, after Yugplastica and Maccabi Tel Aviv, to win it for the second year in a row in the Final Four with surprising ease. They comfortably beat CSKA Moscow 69-52 in the semi-final, City’s unofficial rematch of the final, and also easily (100-88) beat Real Madrid in the final at the O2 Arena.

9) Madrid 2015

Olympiacos’ next meeting with Real Madrid took place two years later in Madrid, and this time the “Queen of Europe” smiled at the end. Her comfortable 78-59 win in the final gave her the 8th trophy in her history and left the red-whites with the bitter taste of a lost final after two straight wins. Their victim in the semi-final was again CSKA, this time much more difficult (70-68) compared to the semi-final in London.

10) Istanbul 2017

Giannis Sfeiropoulos led them for the second time (after Madrid) in the Final Four, Olympiacos headed to the city to repeat the 2012 feat. They had no problem continuing their amazing tradition against CSKA Moscow, which he won (82-78). for the 4th time in a row in the Final Four, but in the 8th final in his history, his own … evil demon Zeljko Obradovic cut his way to the title (also for the 4th time). In front of their audience, Fenerbahçe easily won the final with a score of 80-64, while the legendary Obradovic won 9 titles, the same number as the institution’s most successful team, Real Madrid, achieved the following year!

11) Belgrade 2022

Five years after their last attempt, Olympiacos reappeared in the Final Four, again with the Greek coach on the bench. This time, Giorgos Bartzokas failed to repeat what he achieved in London in 2013, despite the fact that there were 15,000 Red and White fans in the stands, as Misic’s three-point shot in the semi-finals gave victory – qualification (77- 74) in Anatolian Ephesus. The Turkish team became the 4th team to win the title in a row, while in the final four-system victory with a score of 58-57 in another thriller final, while the “empty” Olympiacos were defeated by Barcelona with a score of 84-74 in the minor final and was capped. to 4th place.