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Thursday January 2, 2014 the Basketball Euroleague 2013/2014 Top 16 is starting. The Forumula is that experimented in the last season, with two groups consisting of 8 teams each. This structure with 4 teams per group that will go to the quarter-finals has changed this second phase of the Euroleague very much.
This Top 16 is longer than the regular season, since there are 14 gamedays against 10 in the first phase. This way there’s a chance to go to plyoffs for a team that played one or two bad games and confirms the willingness to offer many high-level games.
Let’s take a look at the Top 16 groups.
Group E
Fenerbahce Ulker Istanbul
Olympiacos Piraeus
EA7 Emporio Armani Milan
Laboral Kutxa Vitoria
FC Barcelona
Unicaja Malaga
Anadolu Efes Istanbul
Panathinaikos Athens
In the regular season, Olympiacos Piraeus has once again proven it’s a very strong team and it did it from the beginning while in the two previous seasons it gave the best only approaching the important phases of the Euroleague. Fenerbahce Ulker Istanbul showed it could play at the highest levels coming first in its group, ahead of FC Barcelona. If Daniel Hackett, newly arrived to EA7 Emporio Armani Milan, will give his new team the contribution that is expected of him, this could be the fourth in the group to go to the playoffs.
Group F
Real Madrid
Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv
CSKA Moscow
Galatasaray Liv Hospital Istanbul
Zalgiris Kaunas
Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar
Partizan NIS Belgrade
FC Bayern Munich
Real Madrid finished the regular season undefeated and should have no problems in the Top 16. Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv and CSKA Moscow are the other two teams that have done very well in the regular season and are expected to reach the playoffs without problems. For the last place there could be a struggle because Galatasaray Liv Hospital Istanbul had injury problems so it might not be able to play its best in the Top 16 and as a consequence Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar could surprise again and reach the playoffs.
As always, may the best win! 🙂
