Olympiacos subdued last year’s champion Panathinaikos 97-93 and won the Euroleague 2025 bronze in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.
The eternal rivals of Greek sports fought for the consolation prize of third place after they were both bitterly eliminated at the Final Four semifinals on Friday.
Hundreds Olympiacos and Panathinaikos fans traveled to the United Arab Emirates for the tournament with the hope to see them fight in the first-ever all-Greek final, but defending champions Panathinaikos and Regular Season top seed Olympiacos lost to Fenerbahce and Monaco respectively.
Panathinaikos’ Lorenzo Brown, Ioannis Papapetrou and Omer Yurtseven played a combined total of less than ten minutes against Fenerbahce, while only Evan Fournier performed well in Olympiacos’s disappointing defeat to Monaco, scoring 31 points.
Fans of Olympiacos and Panathinaikos clashed on the stands of Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Arena before the game, but the incident did not escalate thanks to the timely intervention of security personnel.
Olympiacos took the lead against Panathinaikos early on in the third place game that started at 4pm CEST and stayed ahead during all four quarters. Despite Panathinaikos picking up pace in the last quarter, the Greens could not close the gap and fell 97-93.
Alec Peters was Olympiacos’ MVP with 32 points, a new club record at the Final Four and tied for the most all-time in a Final Four game in the modern era, while Sasha Vezenkov bounced back from his disappointing semifinals performance with 23 points and Moses Wright, who didn’t feature in the semifinals, scored 19 points.
Panathinaikos was led by Omer Yurtseven’s 23 points, followed by 14 for Cedi Osman and 12 for Mathias Lessort.
Upon their return to Athens after the Euroleague tournament, Olympiacos and Panathinaikos will face off again on Friday, May 30, in the Greek League.
Meanwhile tonight, 7pm CEST, Fenerbahce and Monaco will meet in the championship game to determine the 2024-25 Euroleague champion.
Fenerbahce is aiming to lift its second EuroLeague crown after last doing so in 2017, while Monaco is competing in the title decider for the first time.
Greek basketball legend Vassilis Spanoulis is the head coach who will be leading Monaco against Fenerbahce in its battle for the title. Monaco’s roster also includes two acclaimed Greek players: Nick Kalathes and Georgios Papagiannis.
In the opening semifinal on Friday, Fenerbahce advanced to the championship game by downing defending champion Panathinaikos 82-76 after leading for more than 38 minutes with a dominant display.
The Turkish team took early control for a double-digit first quarter lead and stayed ahead, 38-33, until halftime. While Panathinaikos came back to within one point in the third period, Fenerbahce stayed strong in the fourth to seal the win.
In the second semifinal, Monaco beat Olympiacos 65-75 to reach its first-ever championship game and condemn the Reds to a fourth successive Final Four heartbreak despite Evan Fournier’s impressive performance setting a semifinal record this century with 31 points.
