ISTANBUL - Olympiakos Piraeus and CSKA Moscow reached the final of Europe's premier basketball club competition on Friday after dramatic wins over more heralded rivals in a packed Sinan Erdem Arena.

CSKA Moskow's players celebrate victory after the game against Panathinaikos at their Euroleague Final Four semifinal basketball game in Istanbul May 11, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

An effervescent performance by playmaker Vassilis Spanoulis steered Olympiakos to a 68-64 victory versus 2010 champions Barcelona while Andrei Kirilenko overcame early jitters to help CSKA Moscow beat holders Panathinaikos Athens 66-64.

Taunted and vastly outnumbered by noisy Panathinaikos fans throughout both semi-finals, their bitter city foes donning the red and white colours of Olympiakos had the last laugh as Spanoulis led the charge for their team against Barcelona.

With the clock ticking in a nail-biting finish, he buried a three-pointer and then dished a no-look pass to Richard Dorsey for an easy lay-up as Olympiakos got sweet revenge for an 86-68 defeat by Barcelona in the 2010 final.

"Vassilis is a real team leader and one of a kind, he will always take responsibility at crunch time and attack the basket to take the pressure of his team mates," Olympiakos's Macedonia centre Pero Antic told Reuters.

"We now have a great chance to prove wrong everyone who wrote off this team before the season started and win our first major trophy since 1997.

"It would be no more than our (Serbian) coach Dusan Ivkovic deserved after once again showing immense experience and tactical prowess second to none," said Antic.