Basketball Champions League: Semi-final time for Peristeri – Against Tenerife, on a glass floor

Peristeri, in the second season of Vassilis Spanoulis in technical leadership, is already in the four best teams of the season (2023-24) in the Basketball Champions League.

In the final four in Belgrade, which starts today, they will claim to become the second Greek team, after AEK (2018), to win the trophy, in the short history of the competition (since 2017).

At 19:00 (Cosmote Sport 4) Peristeri faces Tenerife in the first semi-final of the final four, while at 22:00 the Spanish “civil war” between Murcia and Malaga follows.

In the seven finals that have been held since 2017, the title has been won four times by a Spanish team (Tenerife 2 titles in 2017 and 2002, Burgos 2 in 2020 and 2021), a Greek team (AEK in 2018) and a an Italian one (Virtus Bologna in 2019) and a German one (Telecom Bonn in 2023).

Peristeri, however, eliminated title holder Telecom Bonn in the quarter-finals. The German club prevailed 89-78 in the first match between them, in Germany, on April 3. Peristeri responded with a commanding victory, 90-62, at home on April 10, and after 1-1, the series went to a third game, to take the “double” on German soil, 77-89, in Peristeri and book a “ticket” to Belgrade.

The European participations… are a big chapter in the history of the men’s basketball team of Peristeri and they started in 1992! Seven consecutive participations were counted by the “cyano-yellows” in the Korats Cup from 1992 to 2000. And in the very next season (2000-01), Peristeri participated for the first time in its history in the Euroleague, making a decent appearance to complete the regular season with 7 wins-3 losses and to qualify for the “16”, only to be eliminated from the continuation with two losses by Baskonia. This was followed by the second participation in the Euroleague in the 2001-02 season, defeating giants of European basketball! The victory over Barcelona in the Palau Blaugrana on October 25, 2001, on October 25, 2001, has remained unforgettable for the Peristerians, when with an epic upset, led by the late Polish forward Adam Wojcik with 28 points and 23 points from Byron Dinkins (23 points), they prevailed, with 73 -77 of the Catalans who, in addition to Juan Carlos Navarro, Sarounas Jasikevicius, Artouras Karnisovas, Ademola Okoulaya and Nacho Rodríguez, and two Greeks, Efthymi Renzia and Nikos Oikonomou, were in their composition. At that time, Peristeri had just become the second Greek team to celebrate a “double” in the “Palau Blaugrana”, after PAOK!

The following year (2002-03) Peristeri participated in the FIBA ​​Europe Champions Cup and the following year (2003-04) in the FIBA ​​Europe League (later EuroChallenge). After the huge financial problems of the KAE, in the 2004-05 season Peristeri competed in A2, was also relegated to the 2nd national team and Peristeri participated again in A1 in the 2009-10 season. However, it was relegated to A2, in which it participated in the 2013-14 season to stay away from the “big salons” of Greek basketball until 2018. Since then, since the 2018-19 season, Peristeri has been competing in the A1/Basket League, and with careful and steady steps managed to finish the current season (2023-24) in the 3rd place of the regular season of the Basket League (15 wins – 7 losses) and qualify for the final four of the BCL, where they will first claim the qualification for the final in Friday (26/4) with the aim of… the title.

The final four of the BCL will be held on a glass floor. Something that has never happened, in any European inter-club competition so far.

The possibilities of the Glass Floor are now known and the experience of the fans, as well as the players, is taken to another level, where the entertainment, the spectacle, the enjoyment soars.

RES-EMP