(MENAFN- Kora) In a replay of last season's final madrid defeated reigning champions olympiacos 88-71 on tuesday to take a 1-0 lead in the five-game series while barcelona crunched galatasaray 88-61.
Madrid and barcelona met in the semi-finals of last season's euroleague with the former prevailing before they were defeated by olympiacos in the final.
In the spanish capital the hosts jumped out to a 15-point lead at the end of the first quarter before olympiacos hit back in the second term to trail by just seven.
But in the second half madrid outscored the greek club 40-30 to win comfortably with rudy fernandez (20 points) and nikola mirotic (15) leading the way for the spaniards.
Vassilis spanoulis (18 points) battled hard for olympiacos.
In barcelona galatasaray suffered a major blow just before half-time when star point guard carlos arroyo went off injured.
The turkish club led by two points at the main break but could not hold off barcelona in the second half with the home side keeping galatasaray to less than 15 points in each quarter.
With bostjan nachbar (19 points) leading the way barcelona outscored galatasaray 26-14 and 29-12 in the last two quarters to triumph by 27 points.
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