La Penya made history and won their first European Cup in Tel Aviv, after the disappointment of losing the final two years ago in the final second. This happened in a match in which the protagonists played seized by nerves, with excessive pressure and fear of failing. Even players with experience in the NBA, such as Tarpley, disappeared from the track.

Throughout the match there was a great equality between Joventut and Olympiakós, with constant alternatives on the scoreboard. The Greek team started very badly in attack, missing nine of their first ten shots, which allowed the Penya to take the lead (9-4, min. 4), despite the fact that the players were also quite erratic black-green in the shot. If Giannis Ioannidis’s side managed to keep their rivals from taking off too much in these opening stages of the match, it was mainly thanks to the power of their inner trio Paspalj-Fassoulas-Tarpley, who captured up to ten offensive rebounds in the first half to give their team second chances at pitching. For Joventut, their problems lay in the low contribution of their eaves, with Villacampa perfectly marked by a defensive specialist such as Sigalas (the green-black captain could barely throw a basket once) and the Hispanic-American Mike Smith with only three points scored in the first half (a triple in the last second that tied the game at 39). As Olympiakos’ insider play took hold in the area, the Greek side began to acquire their first advantages. Coinciding with the absence of Villacampa on track and two balls lost consecutively by the Jofresa brothers, the set of Piraeus managed to open an important gap of eight points (16-24, min. 13), although the return to track of a more intoned Villacampa brought his team on the scoreboard (32-33), to finish the first half with a tie at 39 thanks to the aforementioned triple Mike Smith.

At the beginning of the second half, Villacampa put Joventut ahead again (41-39), and from that moment on the alternatives followed on the scoreboard, with slight advantages of one and the other. With 6’44» to go, Olympiakos managed to get five points up (52-57), which, given the tremendously defensive and locked game, seemed an almost definitive income to ensure victory. However, the match was still open, given the continuous failed attacks of one team and another: although the Penya was more than four minutes without scoring a single point (from 52-53 with 8’20» to 53-57 with 4’09»), the Greek team was not in the back, and could barely score a free kick … in the last eight minutes of the game! Paspalj, who had been his team’s best in the first half with 15 points, never scored again in the entire second half.

When the match entered its decisive phase, the mistakes were made by both teams. After a few minutes in which the scoreboard did not move, a triple Villacampa with 2’02» to spare served to give hope to his team (56-57). After a failed attack by Olympiakos, Corny Thompson scored a new triple 18 seconds from the end that looked like the victory (59-57). With 4.8 seconds remaining, Mike Smith commits a personal foul on Paspalj. The Serbian forward -visibly fatigued and demoralized after a disastrous second half- misses the first free kick of «1+1», and for the rebound fight an infinity of hands. At the same time, time does not seem to pass. When Rafael Jofresa gets the ball, he throws it forward without control thinking that the game was over, but the scorers table, in an unforgivable error, forgets to restart the timer after the free kick of Paspalj, something that finally happens four seconds later, allowing the Greek set to throw up to three times more in the basket to achieve victory (a triple of Tomić with the clock stopped) or force the extension (with shots from Paspalj and Tarpley). Finally the horn sounds and the match ends between the indescribable joy of the players of the Penya, who embrace and cry on the track. Badalona, in those moments, was a city in which everyone jumped into the street to celebrate the victory of his team.