Can Joventut surprise Real Madrid?
Tomorrow evening, Joventut Badalona will host Real Madrid in Pabellon Olimpic in a game that counts for Round 6 of the 2025-26 ACB League season.
The two teams are currently tied with a 4-1 record in the ACB League standings, so we can expect a fierce battle. Joventut also started their Basketball Champions League season, where they are unbeaten after 4 games, but tomorrow’s matchup against Real Madrid will be the strongest test so far (Daniel Miret’s only defeat so far this season was suffered in Valencia, another title contender in the Spanish league). The return of Ricky Rubio to the green and black team in the summer gave a huge boost to the Catalan team, which already had a great mix of young talent and experienced players that won trophies in their careers. Rubio proved that he is still an elite point guard in Europe, and he just played his best game so far this season on Wednesday against Bursaspor in the BCL when he scored 24 points and dished 5 assists.
Real Madrid is obviously a title contender in every competition this season, too, but they went through a lot of changes in the summer, and they are not at 100% yet. However, they just defeated their arch-rivals, FC Barcelona, yesterday in the Palau Blaugrana, improving their EuroLeague record to 5-4, and they won’t even need to travel much from Barcelona to Badalona, so that will not be an issue for the blancos.
We can expect a tough game where Joventut, with the support of its fans, certainly hopes to stay unbeaten at home, but Real has also started to look great lately, with impressive wins against Fenerbahce and Barcelona.
Imre Halasz
Photo credit: Basketball Champions League
