Today, the 2 semi-finals are being held for the Euroleague Final 4 held in Milan, Italy.
For the first time since 2008 we will not have Greek representation in Xinalx 4 after Olympiacos and Panathinaikos were eliminated in 8 by Real and CSKA respectively. Despite the Greek absences, Xinalx 4 will be very strong after participating 4 teams with heavy history and 21 titles as a whole (Real 8, CSN 6, MacNum 5 and 2 Barcelona).
In the first semifinals that will begin at 7, CSKA Moscow will face Maccabi and after 2 defeats against Olympiacos in Istanbul and London will want to take its first trophy after 2008 where in Madrid she won Maccabi with 91- 77.From Maccabi returns to Xinalx 4 after 2011 where he lost again to the final from Panathinaikos with 78-70. The Israelis have a terrific tradition in the 4 Semi-final Phenal since 2000 and then count 7 / 8 wins with unique defeat in Bologna 2002 from Panathinaikos.
In the games now, CSKA seems to have chemistry problems all year round with many ups and downs in its performance. In the first round of the tournament it finished in the 2nd place of its group behind Fener, while in the 16th it took the first place in its group ahead from Real and Maccabi. In the 2 games with Maccabi it won very easily at home with 100-65, while it also won in Tel Aviv with 81-76 in an indifferent match. In 8 it passed Panathinaikos with 3-2 victories.
It comes from 2 coming from home in the Baltic League defeat by Cuban staring at her appearances.
Maccabi, who has lowered her last year's record, has also achieved her goal of winning Xinalx 4 after 3. She is playing fast-tempo games with a lot of three-pointers, while when the Schortsanitis are on the pitch, the ball passes continuously from the hands to open spaces for the other players.
In the regular season, 1 finished in its group in front of Cuban, Lamboral Koutsa and Panathinaikos, while 16 as I wrote and above came 3 behind CSKA and Real.
8 faced Milan with a drawback. In 1 Agona, despite losing 9 2.30 points before the end, he made the raise and won the win. He then easily lost to the 2 match, but 2's next matches at Tel Aviv took 2 easy victories without endangering.
4 Final can be held in Milan, but Maccabi's friends have received about 6.000 tickets against Russian 1.000 and will actually play at home.
I expect to see a closed match that will be judged in detail and I think the handicap + 6,5 given to Maccabi will not be covered by CSKA.