Paok with a big win in Champions League vs. Galatasaray
Game of the week in Champions League was also for me one of the most awaited battles. The initial odds on Paok were 2.60 which seemed big for me, but not for the rest of the betting community. I recommended to chose PAOK as a winner against Galatasaray for many reasons. The basketball market was against my suggestion and the odd on PAOK raised a bit instead of falling as I expected.
Of course the bettors were blinded by the recent success of Galatasaray beating the Euroleague powerhouse Anadolu Efes this weekend. It is a great win but doesn’t prove much for the next encounters. Last weekend in the domestic leagues, Real Madrid, Fenerbahce and Virtus Bologna have lost in front of underdog teams. And so what? This is basketball. Galatasaray had a great game against Efes but this doesn’t mean that automatically they will beat PAOK in Thessaloniki.
In my opinion, PAOK had the first chance because they needed desperately the win, after losing the first 2 rounds of the Basketball Champions League. At the same time, they recovered two key players, Josh Carter and Jermaine Love, that didn’t play with the team in the last weeks. So, actually, we didn’t see the real PAOK till now. Without them, the rotation was very short and important positions couldn’t be covered properly.
Last but not least, Galatasaray came to Greece without two Turkish players, Goksenin Koksal and Okben Ulubay, which shortened their rotation. The fatigue accumulated in the Turkish team and this have been seen in the last quarter when they couldn’t maintain the rhythm.
Image credit: Basketball Champions League
Gratian Cormos is a Romanian life coach, journalist, book writer and mentor currently living in the city of Barcelona, Spain.
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