Panathinaikos-Real: Their 50th meeting will be in the final

Panathinaikos and Real Madrid count… 62 years of matches in Europe. But although they have won the title six and eleven times respectively and although they have taken part in 11 and 13 Final 4s respectively, they will meet in such a one – and indeed in the grand final – on Sunday night for the first time in their history.

The “greens” have been found in the same Final 4 as the “queen” in 1995, 1996 and 2011without however meeting any of these three times neither in a semi-final, nor in a final, nor in a third-place match.

From the era of (players at the time) Politis and Vasilakopoulos, Lolo Saint and Stan Morrison, to Koronaios and Stergakos on the one hand and Fernando and Antonio Martin on the other, to the titan battles of Galis, Giannakis, Albertis, Oikonomou, Paspali and Vrankovic with Sabonis, Arlaukas and Biriukov, from the duel of Bodiroga with Djordjevic to Diamantidis against Rudi and – today – with Slouka, Nan and Lessor against Campacho, Hezonia and Tavares.

Sta most important appointments of the two teams, bad lies, the Madridites have had the last laugh. In the quarter-finals of the Cup Winners’ Cup in 1984, which were played in a group, the “queen” had finished first en route to winning another cup. In 2018, the two teams faced each other in the playoffs and despite the impressive 95-67 loss of the first match at OAKA, Real won the next three matches and advanced to the Final 4. A year later, Pablo Lasso’s team-then-“swept” the series with 3-0 reaching the end of the route.

Anyway the last taste was sweet for Panathinaikos, which in the most recent meeting between the two teams was defeated 97-86 by the Spanish capital, a few days after losing the Cup final to Olympiakos. And since then he made a terrific demarcation that first brought him second in the regular season with eight wins in the last nine matches of the season, then in the Final 4 after qualifying against Maccabi and… now in the final.

In total they have met 49 times and Panathinaikos has 18 wins against Real’s 31. Analytically:

1962/1963 Panathinaikos-Real 73-97 (Championship Round 1)

1962/1963 Real-Panathinaikos 90-60 Champions Cup (First Round-Champions Cup)

1983/1984 Real-Panathinaikos 104-78 (Cup Quarterfinals)

1983/1984 Panathinaikos-Real 99-97 (Cup Quarterfinals)

1990/1991 Real-Panathinaikos 88-65 (Second Round Korats)

1990/1991 Panathinaikos-Real 82-102 (Second Round Korats)

06/01/1995 Panathinaikos-Real 77-64 (Euroleague Groups)

23/02/1995 Real-Panathinaikos 66-68 (Euroleague Groups)

26/10/1995 Panathinaikos-Real 54-52 (Euroleague Groups)

04/01/1996 Real-Panathinaikos 80-73 (Euroleague Groups)

10/21/1999 Panathinaikos-Real 96-69 (Euroleague First Round)

08/12/1999 Real-Panathinaikos 63-66 (Euroleague First Round)

06/12/2001 Real-Panathinaikos 70-78 (Euroleague First Phase)

02/14/2002 Panathinaikos-Real 77-88 (Euroleague First Phase)

14/12/2005 Panathinaikos-Real 87-71 (Euroleague First Phase)

08/02/2006 Real-Panathinaikos 73-90 (Euroleague First Phase)

06/12/2007 Panathinaikos-Real 92-85 (Euroleague First Phase)

01/31/2008 Real-Panathinaikos 95-87 (Euroleague First Phase)

05/11/2009 Real-Panathinaikos 80-70 (Euroleague First Phase)

12/17/2009 Panathinaikos-Real 67-76 (Euroleague First Phase)

12/10/2012 Real-Panathinaikos 85-78 (Euroleague First Phase)

11/15/2012 Panathinaikos-Real 79-68 (Euroleague First Phase)

25/01/2013 Panathinaikos-Real 54-58 (Top 16)

21/03/2013 Real-Panathinaikos 73-74 (Top 16)

01/22/2015 Real-Panathinaikos 83-65 (Top 16)

20/03/2015 Panathinaikos-Real 85-69 (Top 16)

16/11/2016 Real-Panathinaikos 87-84 (Regular Season)

16/03/2017 Panathinaikos-Real 88-82 (Regular Season)

24/11/2017 Panathinaikos-Real 82-80 (Regular Season)

08/03/2018 Real-Panathinaikos 92-75 (Regular Season)

04/17/2018 Panathinaikos-Real 95-67 (Playoffs)

04/19/2018 Panathinaikos-Real 82-89 (Playoffs)

25/04/2018 Real-Panathinaikos 81-74 (Playoffs)

27/04/2018 Real-Panathinaikos 89-82 (Playoffs)

19/12/2018 Real-Panathinaikos 89-68 (Regular Season)

28/03/2019 Panathinaikos-Real 73-74 (Regular Season)

04/17/2019 Real-Panathinaikos 75-72 (Playoffs)

19/04/2019 Real-Panathinaikos 78-63 (Playoffs)

23/04/2019 Panathinaikos-Real 82-89 (Playoffs)

26/12/2019 Panathinaikos-Real 75-87 (Regular Season)

24/02/2020 Real-Panathinaikos 96-78 (Regular Season)

15/12/2020 Panathinaikos-Real 93-97 (Regular Season)

27/01/2021 Real-Panathinaikos 76-66 (Regular Season)

15/10/2021 Real-Panathinaikos 88-65 (Regular Season)

31/03/2022 Panathinaikos-Real 87-86 (Regular Season)

06/10/2022 Panathinaikos-Real 68-71 (Regular Season)

01/02/2023 Real-Panathinaikos 83-68 (Regular Season)

07/12/2023 Panathinaikos-Real 78-90 (Regular Season)

29/02/2024 Real-Panathinaikos 86-97 (Regular Season)