The Euroleague appointment to Football Club Barcelona and Real Madrid for the second time this season. You have to look back at the dawn of the season to find the previous confrontation between the two, with victory for the whites in the Spanish Super Cup, but since that first meeting of the season, things have changed a lot for both of them.
Neither of them is a totally reliable team, neither Peñarroya’s nor Mateo’s are infallible, so in this strange season for both of them, more than ever the forecast becomes unpredictable.
The main novelty is in the recent signing that the culés made this week. The Brazilian point guard Raul Neto arrived in Barcelona to cover the significant loss of Nico Laprovittolaso he will have an unbeatable opportunity to debut in the Barça shirt.
Dzanan Musa shoots a basket in the Euroleague game against Alba Berlin.
EFE
Neither culés nor the madridistas arrive in a good position in the Euroleague classification. Barça is eighth and Real Madrid is even lower, in tenth position, so neither instills any special fear this year in Europa.
The Catalans have only won two of the last five European matches, something that has led them to drop significantly in the table after a good start. The whites, for their part, are killed by their disastrous performances away from home, so the Palau presents itself as a perfect setting to break that bad streak.
A very even duel
After the international break that stopped the Endesa League Last weekend, Barça had time to lick the wounds of the last defeat against Bayern Munich. The culés conceded 100 points against Bayern99 before the Valencia Basket and 103 before him Paris, Too high figures that have made him stop dead.
Barça is a team that shines when it can run, and for this it will be essential to control the rebound and recover balls. There is a reason why Joan Peñarroya’s men lead the Euroleague in steals (8.6) and are the second in the most assists (21.1), one step above the Madrid team (20).
Jabari Parker tries to keep the ball from Tyrique Jones in the Euroleague game.
EFE
The Azulgranas and the Whites are quite even in terms of points scored (85.7 to 83.8) and conceded (84.4 to 82.2), but the team led by Chus Mateo stands out for its success rate in the zone (58.1% to 62.1%), while the Catalan team has a better percentage from the perimeter (38.3% to 33.6%).
Real Madrid will once again face its worst ghost, that of playing away from the WiZink Center, although Chus Mateo wanted to take the pressure off in that regard: “We have to avoid this obsession with winning away from home,” commented the coach.
“It is a situation that has been repeating itself, but I think that by working every time we will be closer to breaking it. We would not like to put excessive pressure on ourselves or have anxiety because it will come. I think we have to be more disciplined and rigorous when we play away from home , avoid losses, not make silly mistakes and be more cautious in our game,” he concluded.
Peñarroya, for his part, highlighted the defense as a key element: “Our defensive work could be improved. We have played against three teams (Paris, Valencia and Bayern) that stand out for having a very high pace of possession and a lot of danger in the triple, but we have not been as consistent as in previous weeks. We have talked about it, we know we can do better, and tomorrow is a good day to take a step forward in defense.”
