By Stathis Trapezanlides/ info@eurohoops.net
The first double-round week of the year 2020 tips off tomorrow and Eurohoops has picked out three games with nice odds along with some to keep an eye on, especially for the live bet.
CSKA Moscow – Real Madrid: 1 (1.86)
Coach Dimitris Itoudis’ squad maybe lacks quality compared to recent years but remains a strong and very hard-to-beat home team no matter the opponent. They’ve lost only three of their last 20 home games in all competitions and the last one came the previous week, against Panathinaikos. And although Real Madrid arrives in a good form and will have Sergio Llull and Gabriel Deck back in the roster, we believe it’s worth tipping on the Russians this time around as they try to stay close to the top four teams.
Crvena Zvezda mts – Zalgiris Kaunas: 2 (2.55)
A very important game for both sides as Zalgiris tries to get back up from a bad stretch of the season and keep playoff hopes, no matter how small, alive. Meanwhile, Crvena Zvezda won its last four EuroLeague games and sits at the eighth spot. However, although they seem to be in a better form and the game is played in Belgrade, we decided to go with Zalgiris on this one due to an excessive 2.55 odd and with the belief that coach Sarunas Jasikevicius’ squad has a ‘higher ceiling’ and will step up to the occasion.
Zenit St Petersburg – KIROLBET Baskonia: 2 (1.95)
Another great odd for the away team’s victory as Baskonia travels to Russia with the goal to get back on track for the playoff zone. They are two wins behind the eighth-placed Zvezda and although they’ve had a turbulent month and changed the coach, Baskonia was quite convincing in their last game against Gran Canaria in the Spanish League. They face Zenit, a team with ‘two faces’ as they seem to either bring out the best or the worst week by week. Anything other than a win for Baskonia would be a failure and we bet on Dusko Ivanovic getting his team ready for that pressure.
Greek teams could take four out of four
Panathinaikos OPAP and Olympiacos Piraeus have a chance to win all of their games in this double-round week as long as they put on at least 70-75% of their capabilities with the schedule going their way. They should get ‘comfortable’ wins this week with a solid margin, however, the odds and handicaps are a bit tricky so we’ll leave these games for live betting.
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