Greek basketball club Olympiacos beat FC Barcelona 73-71 after a thrilling battle on Tuesday night, taking a 2-1 lead for the race to the finals in Madrid.

George Printezis paced the winners with 19 points and Vassilis Spanoulis added 15 and 8 assists for Olympiacos, while Juan Carlos Navarro led Barcelona with 14 points.

"I think we controlled the game for most of the time," Olympiacos' coach Giannis Sfairopoulos highlighted after the game.

Olympiacos will have the chance to reach the final four for eighth time in its history on Thursday night, while Barcelona needs to win Game 4 to take the series back to Palau Blaugrana.