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On Tuesday December 30, 2014 the Euroleague Basketball 2014/2015 Top 16 is starting. The formula is the one inaugurated two years ago, with two groups consisting of 8 teams each and consequently longer than the regular season. This time a few games of the first gameday are played early at the end of this year before finishing it on January 2, 2015.

Let’s have a look at the Top 16 groups.

Group E

Real Madrid
Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv
Panathinaikos Athens
Galatasaray Liv Hospital Istanbul
FC Barcelona
Crvena Zvezda Telekom Belgrade
Zalgiris Kaunas
ALBA Berlin

Real Madrid and FC Barcelona confirmed they’re excellent teams winning their groupa so I think the two Spanish teams will win the first two places in this Top 16 group to have the home field advantage in the quarter-finals. Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv should finish third and in my opinion there will be an interesting struggle for the last quarter-finals berth. Panathinaikos Athens ended the regular season bad with three straight losses but could be the strongest candidate for the fourth place but the others will try until the end. Galatasaray Liv Hospital Istanbul for example added a few players to improve its quality so I think the fight will be open until the end.

Group F

CSKA Moscow
Fenerbahce Ulker Istanbul
Laboral Kutxa Vitoria
Nizhny Novgorod
Olympiacos Piraeus
Anadolu Efes Istanbul
Unicaja Malaga
EA7 Emporio Armani Milano

CSKA Moscow finished the regular season undefeated and Olympiacos Piraeus won its group so I think these are the teams that will win the first two places in this Top 16 group. Fenerbahce Ulker Istanbul had an excellent regular season and I think it will win the third place for the quarter-finals. Like in Group E, I think that the fight for the fourth place will be open and the team that will find the best shape in this Top 16 will conquer it. As in the last season, EA7 Emporio Armani Milan could make a leap forward after struggling to find the right cehmistry after hiring new important players last summer.

As always, may the best win! 🙂