Barça – too tired to complete a perfect double round
Barcelona’s 2025-26 season so far can be described in one word: fluctuating. After suffering a surprise defeat at home last Sunday against Lleida in the ACB League, Barcelona was determined to bounce back with two away wins in the EuroLeague double round, and the first obstacle was Maccabi Tel Aviv on Tuesday, in a game that was played in the Aleksandar Nikolic Hall in Belgrade. The blaugrana team played a perfect game in the first two quarters, entering the halftime break with a 28-point, 60-32 lead. Joan Penarroya’s team ended up winning 92-71 with Willy Hernangomez as the top scorer with 19 points, followed by Myles Cale and Kevin Punter with 12 points each.
After the strong performance in Belgrade, Barca travelled to Dubai for their second EuroLeague game of the week to play a team that also had an amazing performance on Tuesday, when they beat defending champions Fenerbahce in Istanbul. Dubai started the game with an 18-5 run, but Barcelona slowly started to get back in the game and by the end of the second quarter, they were leading in the game and entered the halftime with a 34-33 advantage. It was a very close battle until the end, but with 7 minutes left in the fourth quarter, Dubai made a 10-0 run that took their lead to 73-63, and this proved to be decisive as the hosts won 83-78 in the end. Dario Brizuela and Tornike Shengelia were the leading scorers this time for Barca with 19 points each, while the team’s best players from the previous game, Willy Hernangomez, Myles Cale and Kevin Punter really struggled as the trio scored only 4 points in total in Dubai.
Now, Barcelona will travel to Malaga, where they will face Unicaja in the ACB League, where they are 0-2 so far. Malaga is 2-0 in both the BCL and the ACB League, so it will be another tough away game for Barca, who will try to avoid its first two-game losing streak of the season.
Imre Halasz
Image credit: Campo atras
