Panathinaikos will compete for their fifth Euroleague title on Sunday after beating their bitter rivals Olympiakos 84-82 in a titanic semi-final on Saturday morning in Berlin.

Both sides played impressive attacking basketball in match whose result was in doubt until the last second when Olympiakos centre Yiannis Bourousis failed with a close-range shot that would have sent the game into overtime.

CSKA Moscow will make their fourth consecutive appearance in the final of the Euroleague on Sunday after beating Barcelona 82-78 in the other semi-final.

Panathinaikos 84
Olympiakos 82

After a typically tense beginning, the 2007 European champions started the game well and established a 27-21 lead over their Piraeus rivals in the first period. Olympiakos gradually whittled this down to 43-41 by half time.

Panathinaikos looked as if they would establish a commanding lead in the third period but again Olympiakos clawed their way back and an unlikely three-pointer from Bourousis reduced the score to 63-66 at the end of the quarter.

In the end Panathinaikos’s experience told even though Olympiakos refused to give up the game when they constantly found themselves trailing in the third and fourth period.

The reds kept coming back and it seemed at one stage if guard Theodoros Papaloukas would lead Olympiakos to just their second Euroleague final.

But Panathinaikos had Mike Batiste and Sarunas Jasikevicius in fine form, and both players fired for their side in the second-half of the game.

In particular, the Lithuanian’s experience was vital to ensuring that the greens will square up against CSKA Moscow in a re-run of the 2007 final.

Panathinaikos won that game but it was in front of a home crowd in Athens and the Russians, who have made their fourth consecutive Euroleague final, showed in the semi-final against Barcelona that they are a class act.

Zelimir Obradovic and his men will know just what big a challenge they face, having lost twice to the Muscovites twice already in the regular Euroleague season.

Nikola Pekovic, who came up with some vital points in the closing stages, led Panathinaikos with 20 points. Batiste added 19, while Vassilis Spanoulis and Jasikevicius scored 18 each.

The Lithuanian’s performance in the second-half will ultimately be remembered as the difference between the two teams and has given him the opportunity of being the first player to win the Euroleague title with three different teams.

In contrast, Lynn Greer was the top scorer for Olympiakos with 18 points but almost all of them came in the first-half as he found little space to operate in the second-half.

Nikola Vujcic also chipped in with 14 points, Josh Childress got 11 and Bourousis 10.

His attempt to force his way to the basket with just a few seconds remaining after Greer’s way to a three-pointer was blocked will remain a painful memory for the Reds who saw the ball hit the rim and back into Panathinaikos’s grasp.

The Reds will now face Barcelona in the 3rd/4th place play-off.

CSKA Moscow 82
Barcelona 78

The Russians had to come from behind in a closely fought match. They showed their experience in the final quarter for a 28-22 score over the period to turn the game around.

Barcelona had led by nine points at the end of the first quarter. CSKA have won the title twice in the last three years, beating Maccabi Tel Aviv in 2006 and 2008.

But the Russians lost to Panathinaikos in Athens in 2007, which may weigh heavily on the CSKA minds.

Ramunas Siskauskas scored a career-high 29 points to lead CSKA to victory. Trajan Langdon added 15 for the champs and Viktor Khryapa posted 9 points, 10 rebounds and 3 steals.

Former CSKA star David Andersen paced Barcelona with 24 points and Jaka Lakovic and Juan Carlos Navarro netted 13 apiece in defeat.