Olympiacos-AEK Betsson: “Red and white” reaction or “yellow and black” surprise?

Olympiacos and AEK clash tonight (17:15, ERT3, SPORFM 94.6, sport-fm.gr) at SEF, in one of the most important matches for the 16th matchday of the Stoiximan GBL!

In second place in the standings, the “red and white” last Monday (20/1) experienced their second defeat in this year’s regular season, losing 78-72 in their big derby with Panathinaikos at OAKA, effectively losing the home advantage in view of playoffs.

In fact, less than two twenty-four hours before today’s showdown with Union, Olympiacos was also defeated by Fenerbahce in SEF, seeing the winning streak of seven games that “ran” in the competition come to an end, after almost a month and a half. Presenting several weaknesses in their performance, the team of Giorgos Bartzokas is invited to make a reaction with their return to the league, before hosting Efes (31/1, 21:15) for the 24th matchday of the Euroleague.

As far as the matches are concerned, apart from the well-known absences of Evans and Wright, the Greek coach is expected not to have at his disposal either Walkup and McKissickwho were also absent from the game against Fener, with the former again feeling discomfort in the back and the latter suffering from a virus. In addition, against the Turks, they were also injured Fal, Vildosa. For the French center there is no concern, while the Argentine guard will undergo further tests on the contusion he suffered in the rectus abdominis.

On the other hand, AEK is in 5th place on the leaderboard with a record 8-7the same as that of Karditsa, while it is one win behind PAOK and Promethea. For the previous matchday, it made a commanding appearance and prevailed with a comfortable 91-68 victory over PAOK at the “SUNEL Arena”, with Gray and Hale as its leaders, who finished the derby with 20 points each. Thus, it returned to positive results, after the two consecutive defeats against Karditsa and Panathinaikos, while its home match against Prometheus (29/1, 19:00) follows for it, in the premiere of the “16” phase of BCL.

In racing, o Dragan Sakota he doesn’t have to deal with an absence, since even the most precious Kuzminskas is back to 100%, while Obiesi is expected to be left out of the squad as the seventh foreigner. “The matches against Olympiakos and Panathinaikos, and even away from home, especially this season, have an exceptional level of difficulty. It is no coincidence that no team has beaten them in the league. Olympiakos’ losses come from Panathinaikos. For our part, we will do everything we can, but after three days we will play the first match in the “16” phase of the BCL, against Prometheus at home. I’d be lying if I said we weren’t already thinking about Wednesday’s game. For us it is a realistic goal to go as far as possible in Europe. We know very well the potential of Olympiakos. He is first in the Euroleague standings. That says it all. However, we must be as competitive as possible”said the AEK coach ahead of today’s match.

The referees of tonight’s match will be Symeonidis, Bakalis and Hatzimpalidis.

In the match between the two tonight’s opponents for the first round of this year’s championship, last November, Olympiacos won comfortably with 96-77with Vezenkov (18p), Milutinov (17p) and Dorsey (15) as the first scorers, while Kuzminskas (25p) stood out for AEK.