History may be against barça, but as the cliché goes, records are there to be broken. No side has ever come back from the difficult situation of going 1-0 down in an ACB final without having home court advantage.
After losing 76-72 in the controversy-packed game one, Barça Regal have a mountain climb, and the first stage is on Tuesday night (21.00, Teledeporte and Esport3), where the aim is to return to Barcelona with the series at 1-1. And given how extraordinarily well-matched these two sides are, there is no reason why they can’t feel confident that they can do it. If the series is tied when it returns to the Palau, Barça will still be very much in contention for the title.
Changing history
That said, the historic stats don’t bode well for Barça Regal at this stage of the proceedings. The home side has won game one 17 times in ACB history, and on almost half of those occasions (47%) they have gone on to sweep the series: 3-0. On 35% of occasions, the series has gone into a fifth game, but the winner of the opening match has still clinched the trophy 3-2. Such was the case for Barça Regal last season against Real Madrid.
The least common way for such a series to end has been 3-1, which has happened just three times (1986/87, 1990/91 and 2006/07). The worst scenario on Tuesday night would be a second Barça defeat, but after losing the first game on the road, only three times ever has a side managed to take the series back home at 1-1. Every other time, the series has gone to 2-0 and the side with two wins has gone on to become champion. The last time to tie a series 1-1 after losing game one was Real Madrid last season against Barcelona.
But although history suggests that Madrid have everything in their favour, everybody at Barça has every reason to believe that the all hope is anything buit lost at this early stage of the best-of-five series.
