Previewing the 2021 EuroLeague Final Four – Betting Odds, Team Analysis, and Prediction

The four best European basketball teams travel to Cologne to take part in the EuroLeague Final Four over the last weekend of May.

The teams in question are the most recent winner CSKA Moscow, together with Anadolu Efes, Barcelona, and Olimpia Milano.

The two semifinals, CSKA Moscow vs. Anadolu Efes and Barcelona vs. Olimpia Milano, will take place on Friday, May 28. The teams that win will get to face one another in the big final two days later on Sunday, May 30.

So, who’s going to win the 2021 EuroLeague? Let’s see what betting odds are telling us!

Oddsmakers think Anadolu Efes and Barcelona have equal chances of getting ahold of this season’s trophy. With that said, the two are favored to go past CSKA Moscow and Olimpia Milano in the semis, respectively.

If Anadolu Efes does it, it’s going to be the first EuroLeague title in this team’s history. Barcelona is looking to add the third title to the collection, the same as Olimpia Milano.

CSKA Moscow has four EuroLeague trophies in the cupboard. The club is currently sharing the #2 place in the all-time list of EuroLeague champions with Real Madrid and Maccabi Tel Aviv.

The only team that has more trophies in this competition is Panathinaikos Athens.

What is interesting is that the teams who finished in the top four positions at the end of the regular season are competing in the Final Four.

All four did not disappoint in the 2021 EuroLeague Playoffs. This goes especially for CSKA Moscow, which beat Fenerbahçe Beko 3-0 in series. Others did struggle a bit more.

Barcelona beat Zenit Saint Petersburg 3-2 in series. The same score happened in Anadolu Efes vs. Real Madrid and Olimpia Milano vs. Bayern Munich series.

Things are about to get much more interesting as the best four teams get to battle for the title.

Barcelona finished the 2020-21 regular season of the EuroLeague in the #1 position. This team scored a total of 2,706 points in 34 regular-season games, which is about 79.6 points per game on average.

That is obviously a decent number, although not too impressive. Each of the other three participants in the EuroLeague Final Four scored more points.

The main reason why Barcelona ended the regular season at the top of the table is that their defending was superb throughout the entire season. With 2,469 points conceded, Barcelona had the best defensive stats of all the top four teams.

CSKA Moscow and Barcelona met two times this season, with the Spanish side winning both teams. One game saw Barça winning 76-66; the other finished 88-75.

Barcelona was even more dominant against Olimpia Milano, winning on both occasions in the regular season. Both times, Barcelona had a 16-points advantage.

The only team from the Final Four that Barcelona did not beat this season is Anadolu Efes. The Turkish team won in both of their regular-season meetings, although one of those was a really close one (88-86).

The most recent duel between Anadolu Efes and Barcelona was a hard-labored victory for the Turkish champ. However, in their first meeting of the season, the Turks won by a 7 points’ difference.

Anadolu Efes’ good record against Barca stretches back all the way to early 2019. In fact, in their past ten duels, the Turkish team won seven times.

Not only did Anadolu Efes do well against Barcelona, but this team also beat most of the other EuroLeague heavyweights this season.

Anadolu Efes caused CSKA Moscow one of its heaviest losses in recent times. The two met in March in Istanbul, and the score was 100-70 for the home side.

CSKA Moscow did lose to Anadolu Efes by 30 points. However, in their first game of the season, the Russian team won by a 35 points’ difference.

This wasn’t the most important win CSKA got against Anadolu Efes. In 2019, the two met in the EuroLeague Final, in which the team from the Russian capital won 91-83.

The trouble is that despite demolishing Anadolu Efes once this season, the Russians didn’t do too well against the other two teams taking part in the EuroLeague Final Four. Against Barcelona, CSKA lost both games played this season.

CSKA also lost to Olimpia Milano in one of their games while grabbing an overtime victory in the other.

The most decorated Italian basketball team is on the hunt for another trophy. Le Scarpette Rosse have not been too impressive this season, although they did grab some big wins.

For example, the Italian powerhouse beat Anadolu Efes two times. The bad news is that they lost two times against Barcelona, which is the team they’re squaring off with on the first day of the 2021 EuroLeague Final Four. 

In fact, Olimpia Milano has a disappointing history with Barcelona – seven of their previous ten matches were won by the Spanish team.

It would be crazy not to think of CSKA Moscow as a strong title contender. First of all, this is the team that won the trophy two years ago, when the most recent EuroLeague took place.

Most of the players who fought their way to the title are still on the roster. Most notably is the 2019 EuroLeague Final Four MVP, Will Clyburn.

Although there were rumors that the American small forward was going to leave CSKA for an NBA team, he decided to clinch a new deal right after winning the EuroLeague.

Last month, he won the MVP of the Month award, thus becoming the third CSKA player to win the accolade this season.

The other two are Clyburn’s fellow American Mike James and Serbian international Nikola Milutinov. No other team has multiple winners of this award.

Other reasons why I see CSKA winning the trophy include the fact that this is the highest-scoring team in the EuroLeague (84.38 points on average), as well as the team that makes the most rebounds (35.62 per game).

On top of everything, the fact that online betting sites are giving 5.50 on CSKA Moscow to win the 2021 EuroLeague makes this bet a very attractive proposition.