Barcelona and Madrid face the final stretch of the season in a face to face of supreme equality. With only three months of the course ahead, with the Final Four of the Euroleague between May 19 and 21 in Kaunas (Lithuania) on the horizon and as the main objective, both blaugranas and whites ride in the top continental competition as second and third, respectively, and a traced balance of 22-10but that favors the Catalans because of the average particular with a +2. A result achieved with the same number of victories at home (12) and away (10). Only the culé balance is better in the last ten games: eight wins and two losses for the seven wins and three losses of their eternal rival.
A scenario, that if the regular season ends right now (there are still two days to go), would pair Barça with Partizán Belgrade in the quarterfinals and Madrid with Fenerbahçe. Two substantial rivals who would have to win three out of five games to reach the final phase in Kaunas and who have experienced this course in a different way. The Serbs have gone from less to more and the Turks from more to less.
The Partizan has grown colossally with the passage of the campaign: since December they have a 74% win rate with 14 wins in 19 rounds led by Zeljko Obradovic and under the calls of a Stark Arena that exceeds 20,000 souls every other day. He Fenerfor its part, has shown greater irregularity over the weeksgoing from a 10-2 start in early December, which put them at the top of the standings, to 8-12 in the following three months.
The gift that awaits the two Spanish teams if they finish the regular phase second and third (the order does not matter) and overcome their quarterfinals, would be poisoned: both would meet in one of the semifinals of the Lithuanian capital. In this 21st century, Madrid and Barcelona have met twice at this point in the course and the result is 100% favorable for Real… although it didn’t bring them any luck in the final. In 2014, in Milan, they won by a resounding 62-100 and then fell against Maccabi Tel Aviv; and in 2022, in Belgrade, the result was 83-86. Anadolu Efes took victory in the title match.
So far this season, the two giants of Spanish basketball have met four times with a 2-2 balance. Chus Mateo’s men struck first in the Endesa Super Cup (89-83) at the dawn of the season, while Saras Jasikevicius’ men then took revenge with two consecutive victories, first in the Euroleague at the Palau (75-73) and then in the Endesa League at the WiZink Center (78-87). In the European second leg, the whites defeated the blaugranas after extra time (91-86, the result after 40 minutes was 73-73: it’s what counts for the average particular).
The last safe match between the two will be on April 16 in Barcelona in an Endesa League where they are also in equality with 20 wins in 24 days (the same numbers as Baskonia, the third in contention). Of course, until the aforementioned second leg at the Palau, Madrid is the leader for the average overall: +293 for Barcelona’s +269. Two giants with parallel lives.