Barcelona vs. Olympiacos Prediction on April 26, 2024

Match info

They’ve faced off twice before for the trophy: once in the first season following the rebranding of the European Champions Cup as the EuroLeague in 1996–97, and again in 2009–10 (it’s 1-1 in these games). However, this season, only one from the matchup between FC Barcelona Bàsquet and Olympiacos B.C. can advance to the Final Four. View the staff predictions at Bookmaker Expert for men’s basketball 2023–24 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague duel. The Greek side leads the best-of-five playoff series by a score of 1-0. Game 2 will again take place at Barcelona’s Palau Blaugrana on Friday, April 26, at 9:00 PM local time, with the hosts being favorited by the best betting sites with basketball markets on the web.

Meeting statistics

The current form of Barcelona

Barcelona have an opportunity to qualify for the Final Four for the fourth time in a row for the first time ever. The fact that Ricky Rubio is making his 13th appearance in the EuroLeague playoffs and has been performing better and better gives them an overall chance against Olympiacos. After coming out of retirement, the playmaker should put things right for “Barça“ by setting the pace of the game and finding Jan Veselý and Willy Hernangómez for easy baskets in the paint. At forward, the Catalan team has plenty of options thanks to Nikola Kalinić and Jabari Parker. Nonetheless, Roger Grimau’s lack of coaching experience—despite the fact that he’s familiar with winning EuroLeague playoff series from his active playing days—makes Barcelona disadvantaged.

The current form of Olympiacos

All clubs want home-court advantage throughout the regular season, and Barcelona have it against Olympiacos just because it defeated “The Reds“ in both of its games this year. However, it has been almost four months since these two teams met, and Olympiacos emerged victorious 10 times from their final 11 games in the regular season, among the best finishes of any team. Additionally, Nikola Milutinov, Moustapha Fall, Filip Petrušev, and Moses Wright, the team’s four bigs, are all healthy for the first time this season and prepared to play. In this classic heavyweight duel, the Piraeus side is the same size as Barcelona and possesses the perimeter defense to handle the rival’s playmaker lineup: Nico Laprovittola, Tomáš Satoranský, and Ricky.

After all, Olympiacos demonstrated this in Game 1. Despite Barca scoring more points in each of the last two quarters, “The Reds“ outscored the hosts in each. More importantly, they led 35-44 at the break and continued to lead at the end of the third and fourth quarters. Olympiacos’ Nigel Williams-Goss scored a game-high 15 points for his team’s victory 77-75, causing the hosts to suffer just their third defeat at home this season.

Head-to-head encounters

These two met 36 times throughout history with the first matchup held in 2003. “Barça“ is more successful in head-to-heads with 21 wins. Olympiacos recorded 14 triumphs, while one encounter ended was tied. This season is 2-1 for the Spanish team, with Barcelona winning both games during the regular season.

Match analytics

We think Olympiacos will eliminate Barcelona from the playoffs even though they don’t have a home-court advantage, just like they did in 2015. Back then, “The Reds” won two games at their Peace and Friendship Arena and then one at Palau Blaugrana to secure a 3-1 series victory. Olympiacos already stole one at Barcelona again and will have a chance to defend their court at home against the team who’s 7-10 on the road this season. Though there isn’t much between the two teams, we believe the Greeks will make it to the Final Four for the third time under Georgios Bartzokas’ guidance, yet right now we’ll go with Barcelona prevailing in Game 2 and tying at 1-1 in the series (even though we think Olympiacos will ultimately win the series 3-1).

Hence, opt for the point spread – match on -4.5 at Barcelona with odds of 1.89 on ReloadBet.

Results of the forecast

Successful forecast. Barcelona vs. Olympiacos 77:69