Panathinaikos to face Laboral in Euroleague play-offs

Panathinaikos will clash with Laboral Kutxa in the Euroleague play-offs for a place in the Final Four, after finishing third in its group, while Olympiakos saw its European season finish early.

The big battle of the Greens against the Spanish club is a best-of-five contest starting next week, with the Basque team enjoying home advantage.

On April 13 and 15, Laboral will host Games 1 and 2, while Panathinaikos will host Games 3 and 4 (if required) in Athens the following week. Game 5, if needed, will take place in Vitoria.

On Thursday Panathinaikos let a 13-point lead in the third quarter slip in Istanbul, to go down 91-86 at eliminated Anadolu Efes. Had the Greens won in Turkey they would have secured the second spot and home advantage in the play-offs, as Lokomotiv Kuban lost on Friday. On the other hand, it appears that Laboral would suit the Greek Cup winner better than Barcelona…

Thursday’s results in the other group rendered the Olympiakos vs CSKA match irrelevant on Friday, but the Olympiakos supporters went to the Peace and Friendship Stadium in their thousands to pledge their support for the team they aspire to see victorious in the Greek league finals again.

The match was actually very tight and entertaining, ending in victory for CSKA with a 99-96 score, meaning that Olympiakos has ended up seventh in its group of eight.