El Clasico is here: can FC Barcelona win it?
The game of the week in the EuroLeague will be played on Thursday evening in the Palau Blaugrana where FC Barcelona will host Real Madrid in another episode of the El Clasico.
While it is one of the biggest rivalries in Europe and both teams expect to reach at least the Final Four this season, so far both Barca and Real are struggling. The Catalan team is in a better position as they are in 5th place (tied with three other teams) with a 7-4 record, but the Blaugrana lost their last two games by a big margin. Two weeks ago they suffered a 16-point defeat at home against Paris Basketball, while last week Joan Penarroya’s team lost by 22 points in Munich against Bayern. Another loss was the one of forward Chimezie Metu, who suffered an injury in the ACB League against Valencia and will miss about two months of action. The Nigerian player has an average of almost 8 points per game in the EuroLeague so far. To strengthen the roster, Barca signed Brazilian guard Raul Neto, who will replace Nico Laprovittola, another key player they lost because of injury (Laprovittola will miss the whole season).
Even with all these problems, Barca looks better than Real so far. The Blancos are only in 10th place with a 5-6 record and seem far from the team that dominated the regular season last year (Real suffered their 6th defeat in March and lost 7 games). The last time the team coached by Chus Mateo played an away game was almost 20 days ago, as their previous five games have been in the WiZink Center (three of them in the EuroLeague). Last week they beat Alba Berlin but at the half the score was tied against a German team that was missing several players because of injuries.
Still, we should expect a great derby not only because of the two teams’ historic rivalry but also because both teams are desperate to get a win and climb up the standings.
Imre Halasz
Image: EuroLeague
