CSKA Moscow’s undoing was coming, despite impressive showings, going the entire Euroleague season in this modern era is unheard of. But it’s convenient that the team that ended their streak has had their number over the past four seasons.
Olympiacos first upset the stacked CSKA unit in the championship game in 2012 as the Reds unexpectedly reached the final, beating Barcelona in the semi-final.
They faced the Russian giants with nothing to lose as the Muscovites looked to have all the tools needed to conquer. That year, they boasted Andrei Kirilenko, Alexey Shved, Milos Teodosic, Nenad Krstic and Ramunas Siskauskas, Olympiacos looked way out of their depth.
CSKA were comfortable. At times majestic in their execution. But Olympiacos plugged away, even down 53-34 in the third quarter, the Greek side would fight to compete.
And they did.
A 13-0 spurt from Olympiacos culminated in Siskauskas, in his basketball swansong fluffed his lines from the stripe with his side up one with 9.7 seconds left.
Then Georgios Printezis did this:
It capped a remarkable 62-61 success. A success Olympiacos repeated a year later when they downed Real Madrid in London. En route to their O2 Arena triumph though, they ruled their Russian foe again 69-52 in the semi-finals and after that came a season of avoiding each other all together.
It was another Final Four appearance for CSKA as they overcame Olympiacos’ bitter neighbours Pananthinaikos in the quarter-final playoffs before losing both games in Milan at the Euroleague’s flagship event.
The Reds, however, came within a whisker of advancing with CSKA but lost in five games to Real Madrid.
Last Thursday’s Top 16 encounter in Piraeus handed Olympiacos their third straight win over the Russians in as many games, the victory came as a result of fantastic team chemistry as a result of freedom to know your role and be comfortable with it.
Coach Giannis Sfairopoulos coaching style complements the Reds approach and with the majority of the players returning from last season facing an exciting team like CSKA, many of them in their first seasons in Moscow, it goes to show that chemistry can beat individual talent some of the time.
When it comes to CSKA though: it is only some of the time though. They’re 15-1. But, once again, their bogey team haunts them.
