Olympiakos-Barcelona. Prediction and announcement regarding the Euroleague match

The match between Olympiacos and Barcelona will take place in Piraeus on Friday, October 13. The match will start at 21.15 Kiev time. The match will be broadcast live on Setanta Sports Ukraine+ TV channel.

The main match of the second round of the Euroleague will be the meeting of the two participants of last season’s Final Four. In Piraeus, Greece, local Olympiacos, which finished the last match year in second place in the strongest club tournament of the Old World, will face Catalan Barcelona, ​​which is in fourth place in Euroleague 2022/2023. face.

Olympiacos

Olya’s head coach Georgios Bartsokas is slowly trying to build a new and serious team after losing two important players in the off-season. Of course, it will be very difficult to replace Alexander Vezenkov and Kostas Sloukas, but the Greek coach is on the right track. This season, Olympiacos has yet to taste the pain of defeat, winning four in four matches. Moreover, they have already beaten Panathinaikos twice.

In the opening round of the Euroleague, Olympiacos was visiting its arch-rival in Athens. Although this season “Pao” was literally full of strong and high-status basketball players, Georgios Bartzokas’ team managed to turn around the unsuccessful match and drag it into overtime, not leaving even a single chance for their arch-rivals. We won the extra five minutes with a double-digit difference. The final siren recorded the victory for Olympiacos with a score of 88:78.
However, it will be very difficult for the Greek giants to extend their winning streak in the second round. First of all, Spanish Barcelona is a very serious rival and is not weaker (or even stronger) than Panathinaikos. Secondly, in this match “Oli” will definitely not be able to rely on Americans Shakil McKissic and Luke Sikma – two players in the main rotation have minor injuries. It is also possible that Frenchman Mustapha Fall and another US representative, Nigel William-Goss, will not take part in the fight due to medical reasons. However, Lithuanian Ignas Brazdeikis, who signed a contract with the Piraeus club in the off-season, may play his first match for Olympiacos.

barcelona

The Catalan giants have undergone significant changes over the summer. Head coach Sarunas Jasikevicius left the team, which could not fulfill its main duty and win the Euroleague for three seasons. He was replaced by Roger Grimau, a native of the Barcelona system, who was captain of the Blue Garnets when they won their last Euroleague in 2010 and who has played in the youth teams of the Catalan club in recent years.

Barça also said goodbye to star and very expensive striker Nikola Mirotic, who was one of the leaders of the team but could not lead his club to the European championship like Jasikevicius. Instead, the Catalans returned Willy Hernangomez (EuroBasket 2022 MVP) to Spain from the NBA and signed another important player from the strongest league in the world, forward Jabari Parker. The team also added defenseman Dario Brizuela and forward Joel Parra, two Spanish winners of the last EuroBasket. The most important ones, Tomas Satoransky, Jan Vesely and Rokas Jokubaitis, remained in the ranks.

The renewed Barcelona started the new season very unevenly. The team achieved four wins in six matches (three in the Spanish championship and one in the Euroleague). However, the play shown by the Catalan club was far from ideal. Rojer Grimau’s team is literally racking up victories against lower-level opponents such as ASB League newcomers Palencia or Andorra. Moreover, Barça already has two defeats, both against Real Madrid, and this is a painful and unpleasant situation in any case. In the Spanish Super Cup match, the Catalans lost 80:90 to their main rivals, and in the third round of the domestic championship they lost 79:86.
However, the blue garnets had a successful start in the Euroleague. Catalans defeated Efes Pilsen in the first round match with a score of 91:74. But you cannot even say what the main component of this victory was, the good play of Barcelona, ​​which was not very good at the beginning of the season, or the very slow and unattractive situation of the Turkish team.

***

Although the Spanish club has higher expectations for the season, Olympiacos are clearly showing better form at the start of the new year. Maybe Barcelona will find their own game very soon, but right now the favorites of this duo are the Greeks. Moreover, the match will be played on the Oli field and it is always difficult to play in a very noisy Piraeus.

Prediction Sport.ua: Olympiakos wins

1.73 – 2.16 place bet money Zrobiti bet