A rematch of the 2013 Final Four semi-final in London and a game that was played only as recently as Saturday night, Barcelona against Real Madrid is always a breathtaking spectacle, no matter how many times they square off in a season.
Friday night’s second semi-final though will be business as usual for both sides, their meeting in London doesn’t matter, their epic Copa del Rey finale is forgotten, and Saturday’s game in Catalonia has been totally erased from their minds.
“I always believe that you should try to win every single game, you should play your hardest and definitely you don’t want to lose any games,” said Real Madrid’s Jaycee Carroll.
“I don’t put a lot of stock into [Saturday’s Liga Endesa] game with that being said, both of our teams had different goals from that game: We need a win to be in first place for the Playoffs domestically, [Barcelona] need to win a couple more games for third place so there were different motivations but both teams, not just us are also thinking about this weekend.”
“It’s a new game,” added Barcelona’s Jacob Pullen. “We know each other very well and how we play. Friday will be no different. It’ll be tough, which I think works in our favour, but we have a goal and it’s to win.”
Real Madrid have been classed as favourites throughout this season’s Euroleague. They swept all before them in the regular season, while coasting the Top 16, only losing three times in 14 games. They then scraped through against last season’s winners Olympiacos in five games to get to the fashion capital.
On the other side of the coin, Barcelona has been in reverse to their bitter rivals. The Catalan giants were shaky in the first rounds. Losing at home to Nanterre was a definite low point – but as the season progressed – the team with arguably the strongest team on paper grew and a dominant Top 16 followed by a quarter-final sweep of Galatasaray set the stage for Friday.
Did it help Barca?
“For sure, when the series go to five games you can see a lot of things, and in every game the opponent plays, they uncover more weaknesses,” said Barcelona’s Kostas Papanikolaou. “Olympiacos made many of them clear and this helped both us and our coaches to find a couple of weak spots that they may haven’t notice. This is how basketball works. You can work upon what other teams do against your opponent.”
Barcelona and Real Madrid will tip at 21:00 CET.
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