By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
After the German derby on the first day of the EuroLeague opening round, two Greek giants, Panathinaikos and Olympiacos, will face off on the second day at the OAKA Arena.
Both sides won’t be complete, as the Piraeus squad will miss Moustapha Fall for the opener in the top European competition, while Ergin Ataman will be without Ioannis Papapetrou and Dinos Mitoglou in his first match on Panathinaikos‘ bench in EuroLeague. Mitoglou is expected to be out for up to 20 days with an injury, while Papapetrou has missed the Greens’ practice.
Also, it’s unclear whether Olympiacos‘ latest signing, Ignas Brazdeikis, will take the court, since he had his first training session with the squad on Tuesday.
Olympiacos was on the verge of winning the EuroLeague the previous season, losing to Real Madrid in the last seconds of the Kaunas final. Georgios Bartzokas’ side also clinched all domestic trophies, leaving their arch-rivals Panathinaikos in the shadow.
Over the summer, Panathinaikos revamped the squad and signed many high-caliber players, while the Piraeus team lost two of its key members in EuroLeague MVP Sasha Vezenkov and Kostas Sloukas, who chose to sign for Panathinaikos, adding another layer of intensity to the great Greek derby.
The two sides have already met at the Greek Super Cup final, and Olympiacos won in dominant fashion, 75-51, after a historic first-half lead of 37-11.