Olympiacos – Barcelona
Euroleague Round 2
Piraeus, October 13, 20:45 CET
European vice-champion Olympiacos is in an exceptional position to achieve a triumph against Barcelona, which is significantly weaker squad than last season and has yet to find the right game system for the new team.
In the Euroleague round 2 match on Friday in Piraeus, the Greek basketball powerhouse will be a strong favorite. Olympiacos players fully deserved their confidence at the start of the season, they have six wins in a row. The team showed exceptional confidence at the end of difficult matches - such as the victory over fierce Athens rivals Panathinaikos 88:78, last week after overtime, on away court, in very hostile environment.
Behind Olympiacos are victories over Euroleague rivals in friendly games at the end of September – against Maccabi 71:68 and Zalgiris 75:72. Currently, they stand out as the team that plays the best defense in Europe, and the great experience of playing together is an important asset for their players.
Playmaker Canaan absolutely rose to the occasion and shone last week against Panathinaikos. Bringing the outstanding Serbian center Milutinov from CSKA Moscow this summer was a complete hit. We are still waiting for the debut of Lithuanian guard Brazdeikis (expected to play on Friday), and players like power forward Peters, forward Papanikolaou, combo guard Walkup, provide the team with great security. Exceptional options from the bench are center Fall, forward McKissic (excellent shooter), shooting guard Larentzakis... Simply put, this team has at least 12 players who can successfully play in any European team, and they fit perfectly into the coaching team's game system Bartzokas, who demands top defense in every match.
On the other hand, in the weeks after us, Barcelona obviously had big problems in matches away from home. They were beaten by arch-rivals Real Madrid 86-79 in Spain's ACB League on October 1, and the defeat could have easily been much more convincing. With a lot of luck, they beat outsiders Palencia 84:83 on September 29, and before that they lost 90:80 to Real Madrid in the middle of September, in the Spanish Super Cup match.
The victory over Efes 91:74 at home last week is a good guide for Barcelona, but it was still a match against an opponent that has big problems in defense and also has yet to integrate new players and share the roles in their rotations.
During the summer, Barcelona lost players such as the biggest star, power forward Mirotic, center Tobey, excellent shooter Kuric - and in reality, real replacements were not brought. Especially when it comes to bench players, the Catalan giants don't have nearly as good options as Olympiacos. The starting five (Satoransky, Laprovittola, Abrines, Kalinic, Hernangomez) has extremely high quality, but the question is how much can be expected from the former NBA star, forward Jabari Parker.
At the beginning of March, Olympiacos beat this opponent relatively easily in Greece 77:70, and in October last year they celebrated in Barcelona 80:70. Also, in April last year, the Greeks beat the famous opponent 73:66... Now a similar outcome is expected, in a match that will probably be decided before the last minute.