Mirotic takes the helm in Munich and returns the field advantage to Barcelona

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Nikola Mirotic emerged as a leader when Barça needed him most.

The brilliant performance of the Hispanic Montenegrin (25 points, PIR of 31) was, ultimately, what ended up lifting the azulgrana to a hard-fought victory against Bayern by 66-75 that allowed them to recover the court factor and have a first

to get into the semifinals of the Euroleague Final Four in which Real Madrid has been expecting a rival since last Tuesday.

After the corrective sound of the second game, the azulgrana jumped onto the court ready to get even.

And they did, but only partially.

In the first half of the duel, they shone.

To begin with, with a highly inspired

in the triples and a Mirotic always solvent when looking for life under the basket, the azulgrana achieved their first 20 points very soon.

Their apparent offensive bump, and the fact that they lowered the piston a bit in defense, allowed Bayern to get closer, with

again as their spearhead, but only to see how Smits and Exum returned to put ground by medium to close the first 10 minutes with an unappealable 17-26.

offensive final slump

The Latvian and the Australian, precisely, would be the key figures of a Barça that put one more gear in the second quarter to achieve a maximum difference of 19 points that would ultimately become +18 to go to rest (31-49 ).

For Bayern,

was the one who picked up the baton a bit from

, against a tremendously serious rival in defensive tasks against whom

, who was decisive last Friday at the Palau, was practically missing in action.

Bayern, after their offensive display in the second game, dropped a lot of points in attack.

Something that gave more than air to the azulgrana aspirations of, at least, regaining the court factor.

After the break, however, Bayern made a virtue of their need to reduce the differences on the scoreboard to 10 points (49-59) and forced Barça to suffer to win.

Through, especially the appearances of

and the quality of Lucic.

The Barcelona fans suffered a tremendous drop in offensive tasks in the final moments that ended up giving the German team air, an unexpected ball of oxygen.

The azulgrana, far from feeling the blow, found Mirotic's solvency to take back control of the match in the last quarter.

At least, in part.

The locals, far from giving up, tried to fight until the end, but ended up kneeling 66-75.

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