Olympiakos has another big challenge ahead of it tonight. And if the match with Barcelona at "Palau Blaugrana" (22:00, ERT, SPORT FM 94,6 and sport-fm.gr) was not difficult in itself, came the absence of Vassilis Spanoulis, who stayed in Athens with discomfort in the adductor.
But the "red and whites" have not only learned to live with the problems, but also to overcome them. In the past, they celebrated important victories without Hackett, Printezis, but even their leader. Now they are called upon to go one step further. The decisive one in his debut with Panathinaikos Waters will play more, while the rest will need to take a step forward. The consolation is that there are no other match problems, since Nikola Milutinov also overcame the injury and there will be a tall one in Ande Tomic's cubicles under the baskets.
The "blaugrana" with a record of 7-9 need much more victory than Olympiakos. Giorgos Bartzokas does not count on the help of Stratos Perperoglou, but this looks like a drop in the ocean in front of the problems that his team had in the SEF match. Even the fugitive Joey Dorsey will play, with more motivation to help after his coach confirmed that he is looking for a center in the market and expects more from him.
Referees of the match will be Luigi Lamonica (Italy), Milivoje Jovcic (Serbia) and Saso Petek (Slovenia).
"Barça" is the boss
Although Barcelona has the upper hand in prehistory against Olympiakos with 15 wins in 25 games and 10 in 11 matches as host, however the "red and whites" have to say that in three big meetings of the two teams they were winners: in 1997 Olympiakos had won with 73-58 in the final of Rome, in May 2012 overcame the obstacle of "Barça" in the semifinal of Polis to reach the second Euroleague title in its history, while in the play offs of 2015 Piraeus had broken the advantage of the Catalans in play offs and reached the Final Four in Madrid with a three-pointer by Brintezis at the end. However, "Barça" in 2010 had easily prevailed in the final in Paris with 86-68.
15/12/93: Barcelona-Olympiacos 73-69 (Phase of 16)
16/02/94: Olympiacos-Barcelona 82-64 (Phase of 16)
04/01/95: Olympiacos-Barcelona 99-78 (Phase of 16)
23/02/95: Barcelona-Olympiacos 79-64 (Phase of 16)
24/04/97: Olympiacos-Barcelona 73-58 (Final)
20/03/03: Barcelona-Olympiacos 80-77 (Top 16)
10/04/03: Olympiacos-Barcelona 55-58 (Top 16)
03/11/05: Barcelona-Olympiacos 86-70 (Regular Season)
22/12/05: Olympiacos-Barcelona 80-68 (Regular Season)
09/03/06: Barcelona-Olympiacos 76-72 (Top 16)
23/03/06: Olympiacos-Barcelona 67-74 (Top 16)
03/05/09: Olympiacos-Barcelona 79-95 (Small Final)
09/05/10: Barcelona-Olympiacos 86-68 (Final)
11/05/12: Olympiacos-Barcelona 68-64 (Semifinal)
11/01/13: Barcelona-Olympiacos 76-68 (Top 16)
07/03/13: Olympiacos-Barcelona 77-90 (Top 16)
16/01/14: Olympiacos-Barcelona 72-81 (Top 16)
14/03/14: Barcelona-Olympiacos 70-58 (Top 16)
15/04/15: Barcelona-Olympiacos 73-57 (Play Offs)
17/04/15: Barcelona-Olympiacos 63-76 (Play Offs)
21/04/15: Olympiacos-Barcelona 73-71 (Play Offs)
23/04/15: Olympiacos-Barcelona 71-68 (Play Offs)
29/12/15: Olympiacos-Barcelona 74-62 (Top 16)
26/02/16: Barcelona-Olympiacos 82-66 (Top 16)
17/11/16: Olympiacos-Barcelona 59-52 (Regular Season)
The program of the 17th match in detail
Thursday 12 / 1
18:00 Unix Kazan-Bamberg
19:00 Darussafaka-Baskonia
21:45 Red Star-Fenerbahce
22:00 Barcelona-Olympiacos
Friday 13 / 1
19:00 CSKA Moscow-Trade Armani Milan
19:00 Galatasaray-Zalgiris Kaunas
21:45 Panathinaikos-Anantolou Efes
22:00 Real Madrid-Maccabi Tel Aviv
Source: sport-fm.gr