The die is cast: Crvena Zvezda Belgrade will be the opponent of the Bayern basketball team in the first-ever Play-In game involving a German team in the EuroLeague – and the Munich side will have home-court advantage on Tuesday, April 15, at 8:30 p.m. in the SAP Garden. General ticket sales for the 11,200 seats begin on Monday at 11 a.m. in the FCBB ticket shop. Season ticket holders and club members will have early access before that.
Bayern vs. Crvena Zvezda is the matchup between the 9th and 10th place teams after the EuroLeague regular season, which concluded on Friday evening following a dramatic 34th round. Munich ended the season with 19 wins and 15 losses. Only once before – in the pandemic season of 2020/2021 – did they notch more wins (21:13).
The winner faces Real or Paris
If Bayern prevails on Tuesday against the Serbian powerhouse (18:16), they will earn a second and final do-or-die game for a spot in the EuroLeague playoffs: on Good Friday (April 18) away at the loser of the other Play-In matchup between Real Madrid (7th) and Paris Basketball (8th). The winner of that game will then face top-seeded Olympiacos Piraeus in the best-of-five playoffs.
Crvena Zvezda narrowly missed out on 7th place themselves after a strong performance on Friday night, losing 111–104 in overtime at third-place defending champion Panathinaikos Athens. Top scorers for the Serbian side were point guard Codi Miller-McIntyre (26 points), followed by Nemanja Nedovic (22), Filip Petrusev (16), returning captain Luka Mitrovic (13), and Nikola Kalinic (10). Center Joel Bolomboy (10.2 PPG, 8.2 RPG) was still absent; his potential return remains uncertain.
Elias Harris: “Thankfully, in front of our fans”
The rematch against Crvena Zvezda Belgrade was a highlight for Bayern earlier in March, when they delivered an outstanding performance to win 100–82 in the SAP Garden – a redemption for the heavy 77–109 defeat in the first meeting at the end of November. It was one of the standout moments in what has been an inspiring EuroLeague campaign for Bayern, one they now hope to build on.
“In the first game against Crvena Zvezda, we saw how not to do it — we were too slow in every aspect and not physically aggressive enough,” said FCBB veteran Elias Harris on Saturday. “Belgrade plays with a very physical style, and their offensive rebounding is really strong. In the second game, we showed that we can beat them if we match their physicality. That’s exactly what we need to bring — and thankfully, we’ll be doing it in front of our home fans.”
Before the big showdown in the SAP Garden, Bayern still have to face a BBL clash on Sunday afternoon (4:00 p.m.) away in Oldenburg.