CSKA vs. F.C. Barcelona – more balanced than ever

Thursday will schedule five interesting games in the EuroLeague, but by far the most important encounter will be hosted by the Megasport Arena in Moscow, between reigning champions CSKA and one of the favourites to win this year, F.C. Barcelona.

Recent history is clearly in CSKA’s favor, the team from the Russian capital winning 6 of their last 7 encounters in the EuroLeague against the Catalans. The margin of these wins is also impressive, five being with a double-digit difference. The last game between the two teams was played in November at the Palau Blaugrana and the Red Army’ stunned Barca with a 29 point blowout win. The result was even more surprising given the fact that Barca had a very good stretch of games before facing CSKA, while Dimitris Itoudis’s team was coming after two defeats.

Even though the recent encounters favour CSKA and usually Megasport Arena is one of the hardest gyms to win at, I believe Barca has a good chance. In the most part of the season, they showed maturity besides their great individual quality (they have probably the best roster in the EuroLeague) and this game will be a real test for them. F.C. Barcelona has to win in order to keep up with Real Madrid in the race for the 2nd place. A CSKA win would relaunch the fight for the 3rd place, as it would see the Russians coming to just one game behind Barca and Maccabi Tel Aviv is also trying to move up in the standings.

While it’s hard to bet on the winning team for this match, the sure winners will be the fans who will tune in to watch the game. Both teams have a spectacular style of play with many different fellows capable of having an MVP performance.

Photo: Euroleague

Imre Halasz

 

Loading...