FCBARCELONA.CAT

19.01.2009 13:29

Barça draw Real Madrid, Maccabi and Alba Berlin

Sònia de Alba

Regal Barça is in group F in the Top 16. The Catalans will be taking on Real Madrid, Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv and Alba Berlin in the second stage of the Euroleague.

The Top 16 draw has pitted Regal FC Barcelona against three tough rivals.

The classic ACB League duel with Real Madrid and the King’s Cup quarter-final match-up will also been seen in Europe.

Maccabi, who kept Barça out of the Final Four last season in the quarter-final play-off, will once again be going head-to-head with the Catalans with the added consideration of the currently conflictive situation in Israel.

Meanwhile Alba Berlin are the hosts for this year’s European final. The Germans are theoretically under no pressure but are very enthusiastic about ‘their’ Euroleague, plus they knocked DKV Joventut out of Europe last week.

The other groups

In group E, TAU Ceràmica are up against Olympiacos and Theodorus Papaloukas, Armani Jeans Milan with David Hawkins, and Asseco Prokom, the team who played the regular season with Regal Barça.

In group G, Aíto García Reneses’s Unicaja will be facing Lottomatica Rome with Bodiroga and De la Fuente, Panathinaikos coached by Zeljko Obradovic and featuring Sarunas Jasikevicius, and Partizan Belgrade which is always a dangerous team.

Group H features the reigning European champions CSKA, Montepaschi Siena, a team which has improved a lot in recent years, Turkish outfit Fenerbahçe and Cibona Zagreb.