Real Madrid wants to transfer its good start to Europe

Real Madrid wants to transfer its good start to Europe

The Madrid team debuts in the 2022-2023 Euroleague with a visit to the Greek Panathinaikos

MADRID, 5 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Real Madrid will debut this Thursday in the Regular Phase of the Euroleague 2022-2023 on a mythical and always complicated court like OAKA in Athens, where another European basketball classic awaits like Panathinaikos, although this has been far from the focus in the latest campaigns.

The Madrid team will put their new project to the test in the first game of a maximum continental competition in which they will start again among the candidates for a title that will be presented this year more expensive than in the previous ones due to the number of reinforcements that have taken place between the teams and the absence of the Russian teams.

He will have to do it without the presence of Pablo Laso, the coach who, since his arrival in the summer of 2011, qualified Real Madrid for a total of seven 'Finals to Four' out of ten possible, a bar that will require the best of his replacement, Chus Mateo, assistant to the man from Vitoria and who knows that it will surely be in Europe where an already proven worth is measured the most.

For now, with the Madrid coach, who already knows what it means to lead the team in the Euroleague since he had to do it last season when Laso tested positive for coronavirus, the current champion of the Endesa League, despite physical problems in his squad has left good feelings with four wins in his four official matches and already the Super Cup title where he was able to beat his great rival, Barça.

Real Madrid have started the season with their traditional offensive joy, something that has been helped by the signings of the Bosnian Dzanan Musa and the Croatian Mario Hezonja, main reinforcements of a team to which wisdom has also returned in the direction of 'Chacho' Rodríguez and that continues to maintain strength inside with Walter Tavares and Vincent Poirier.

The forced coupling of all these files, to which Facundo Campazzo's could be added, will begin to have little respite with a calendar that will no longer give much room and that begins its carousel at the OAKA, where last year it already fell by 87-86 when he was immersed in his results crisis and in a displacement that caused Thomas Heurtel and Trey Thompkins not to play again. Chus Mateo does not recover any of his injuries for this duel.

For its part, the 'PAO', six times European champion, is still not in the first line of applicants and hopes this season to raise its level to be at least in a fight for the 'playoffs', in which it has not been since the 2018-2019 season, when he was 'swept' precisely by Real Madrid in the quarterfinals, and that they have been very far from him in the last two campaigns where he has barely added victories.

The Athenian team, who with their victory in March broke a losing streak of 13 straight against the Madridistas, will cling to their character and the encouragement of their fans to show how difficult it is to win away in the competition.

Under the command of Dejan Radonjic, there is a squad that must give a better level after being reinforced with players like Derrick Williams, Marius Grigonis, Mateusz Ponitka and Arturas Gudaitis. Nate Wolters will be absent in a 'PAO' that comes from losing the Super Cup of his country against Olympiacos (67-52).

PANATHINAIKOS: Lee, Grigonis, P.Kalaitzakis, Williams y Papagiannis --possible quintet initial-- Ponitka, Gudaitis, G.Kalaitzakis, Andrews, Bochoridis, Chougaz y Mantzoukas.

REAL MADRID: Rodriguez, Causeur, Deck, Yabusele and Tavares -- possible starting quintet -- Llull, Poirier, Hezonja, Musa, Cornelie, Gonzalez and Ndiaye.