The two “eternal” teams, Olympiacos and Panathinaikos, will have their first “date” in the Basket League this season (27/10, 20:15, ERT3)… a “date” that interests not only the Greeks there. sports fans … but also European basketball fans, because it is a “battle” between the Euroleague champion Panathinaikos and the 3rd place in last year’s four in Berlin, Olympiakos.
Olympiacos has its first “mother of battles” for the Greek championship this year. The two swords cross “eternal” for the second time this season, as the first derby was painted red and white, with Olympiakos beating Panathinaikos 86-85 and winning the Super Cup for the third year in a row on September 29.
Olympiacos has been dominant in Europe and Greece against Panathinaikos in recent years in terms of the individual score of its victories against the “greens”, with the finale of last season, however, being painted “green” in Euroleague and Basket League.
As Euroleague 2024 champion and Greek champion of the same year, Panathinaikos will move to SEF this time. In last year’s Basket League final, Panathinaikos won the title 3-2 in the series, which ended in an incredible upset, as Piraeus was ahead 2-0. In fact, Panathinaikos then became only the second team, after AEK in 2002, to come back from a 0-2 deficit in the league and win the championship. In the 2023-24 season, the “greens” won all three games against Olympiakos before the finals. In the first round match that took place on October 30, 2023, Panathinaikos defeated SEF 66-54. The two teams met on January 22, 2024 at OAKA for the second round of the regular season and Panathinaikos prevailed 85-80. The two “eternals” also met on April 15, 2024 for the Top 6 in OAKA and Panathinaikos won 77-71. Basically, in the Basket League, Panathinaikos won 6-2 against Olympiakos last season.
The two, therefore, from the four best teams in the Euroleague last year, strengthened even more during the summer as they tried to make it 1-0 in the Basket League this year.
Sacha Vezenkov, who returned from the Sacramento Kings to the Olympiakos, is the big name on the home side, and Evan Fournier follows him in popularity even if he needs time to find his old self. The Piraeus side loaned Filip Petrusev to Red Star this week, but Mustafa Fal and Nikola Milutinov are both in the ‘5’, with both centers missing the opening games of the season through injury.
In Panathinaikos, Kostas Sloukas returns to SEF again… this time as a winner after what he achieved in his first year with the green jersey. The captain of the “greens” comes from an injury and is not in a good playing condition, but Ergin Ataman has many “weapons”.
In these games, even if both teams need time to fight, the players are very motivated and do their best on the court. What is certain is that the fans will be watching a great game, and the winner will be judged in the details.
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