EuroLeague Basketball: Anadolu Efes to face Olympiacos

Olympiacos, thirsty for win, have poor run in EuroLeague, Greek team lose their last 5 games including Panathinaikos derby

By Can Erozden

ANKARA (AA) - Turkish basketball club Anadolu Efes will play against Olympiacos at home in a Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Round 25 game on Thursday.

In Round 24, Anadolu Efes had a morale-boosting win over Barcelona by 88-86 in Spain and the Istanbul side aims to bag another victory on Thursday.

Visitors Olympiacos are not in good form, as they lost their last five games, including the Panathinaikos derby in the previous round.

Olympiacos respectively lost to France's LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne, Lithuania's Zalgiris Kaunas, Italy's AX Armani Exchange Milan, Spain's Barcelona, and archrivals Panathinaikos OPAP Athens.

This season the Piraeus team won 11 games but lost 13 others.
Olympiacos are now in the 12th spot in the standings.

Anadolu Efes had a 13-10 win/loss record of being in the eighth position in the EuroLeague led by Barcelona, who won 17 games but lost seven others.

The game between Anadolu Efes and Olympiacos in Istanbul's Sinan Erdem Sports Hall will start at 8.30 p.m. local time (1730GMT).

Only the best eight teams will march to the 2021 playoffs once the regular season ends in April.

- CSKA-Panathinaikos game suspended

The EuroLeague said a Round 25 game between Russia's CSKA Moscow and Panathinaikos OPAP Athens had been suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"Panathinaikos OPAP Athens requested the suspension due to local legislation imposing quarantine measures on the team, which leaves it without the minimum eight players on the Authorisation List fit to play," EuroLeague said in a statement.

The organizers will talk to clubs to pick a new date or venue. The EuroLeague board will announce it when it is confirmed.

The EuroLeague's COVID-19 regulations in force says: "Each game can be rescheduled or relocated up to three times if there are available dates."

- Round 25

Thursday:

Khimki Moscow Region (Russia) - TD Systems Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz (Spain)

Anadolu Efes (Turkey) - Olympiacos (Greece)

AX Armani Exchange Milan (Italy) - Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv (Israel)

Barcelona (Spain) - Zalgiris Kaunas (Lithuania)

Friday:

Fenerbahce Beko (Turkey) - ALBA Berlin (Germany)

LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne (France) - Bayern Munich (Germany)

Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade (Serbia) - Zenit Saint Petersburg (Russia)