EuroLeague Semi-Final: FC Barcelona v AX Armani Exchange Milan

The hour of truth. On Friday at 9.00pm CEST, FC Barcelona will begin their first participation in the EuroLeague Final Four for seven years. The Lanxess Arena in Cologne, Germany is the venue and the opposition is AX Armani Exchange Milan.

The prize is a place in Sunday’s final against defending champions CSKA Moscow or the team they beat in the 2019 final, Anadolu Efes of Turkey (there was no 2020 Final Four due to Covid), who are meeting earlier in the day at 6.00pm CEST.

The background

FC Barcelona are appearing in the Final Four for the first time since their third-place finish in 2014. They have been crowned champions of Europe on two occasions in the past, for the first time on home soil in 2003, and then again in Paris in 2010.

Italy’s most successful club, Olimpia Milano, as their rivals are known without the sponsor’s name, are three-time champions (1966, 1987 and 1988), but this is their first appearance in the Final Four since 1992.

Barça topped the regular season table (24-10), while the Milanese finished fourth (21-13).

Barça then beat Zenit Saint Petersburg 3-2 in their quarter final playoff, while Milan also needed five games to see off Bayern Munich.

The opponent

Barça’s opponents are coached by four-time EuroLeague winner in Ettore Messina (twice with Virtus Bologna and twice with CSKA Moscow), and also has previous champions on its roster, including Kyle Hines and Sergio Rodriguez.

Barça’s +237 points difference, almost twice the +121 of Milan in the regular season, indicates Catalan superiority, but with expert 3-pointers like Luigi Datome (51.69%), and with a player like Rodriguez who gave 4.49 assists a game, as well as the free-scoring offence featuring Punter, Shields and former Barça man Delaney, they are not a team to be taken lightly.

Barça

Barça had the best defensive record of the regular season, and that is again likely to be the key today, but they need to make sure they also take all their own point chances, which is where the two sides are most tightly matched.

Speaking before the game, Barça coach Šarūnas Jasikevičius said "When you start the season, this is one of the goals that you set out to do. You want to go to the Final Four. We had a good regular season. We came out on top in a tough playoff series, so I think there's a lot to be proud of and hopefully, we can build on it."

"The advice we usually give is 'try to control the things you can control.' You can always play as hard as you can, you can always follow the game plan, you can always leave it all on the court. Sometimes you hit the shot, sometimes you don't. Sometimes things go your way, sometimes they don't. But just try to help out the team in any way possible."

Earlier this season

Barça won the game earlier this season at the Palau (87-71) and took the game in Italian on the back of an outstanding defensive display (56-72).

Barça may have won those two encounters, but Jasikevičius insists that "you have to learn from the regular season, but at the same time, that's finished. They played both games without the point guards. One of them was without Rodriguez, one of them was without Delaney, and they are a huge part of what they do."