Maccabi Draws to Group F with Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Alba Berlin

By Amy Samin

Group E

Tau Victoria

Olympiacos

AJ Milano

Asseco Prokom

Group F

Regal FC Barcelona

Real Madrid

Maccabi Electra T.A.

Alba Berlin

Group G

Unicaja Malaga

Lottomatica Roma

Panathinaikos

Partizan Belgrade

Group H

CSKA Moscow

Montepaschi Siena

Fenerbahce Ulker

Cibona

In the Top 16 draw held today in Barcelona, Maccabi Tel Aviv drew to Group F, together with Barcelona, Real Madrid and Alba Berlin.
Maccabi escaped being placed in the “group of death” with CSKA and Siena.
Panathinaikos drew to a very tough group that includes Malaga, and Tau’s group with Olympiacos will also not be an easy one.
It is the latter group, E, that Maccabi will be matched up with should the team advance to the next round.

The two top teams from each group will advance to the next round where, unlike in previous years, the teams will compete in a best-of-five match up.
The first two games will be played on the home court of the top ranked team, the second two games will be played on the other team’s court, and a fifth game, if necessary, will be played back on the top team’s home court.

The Top 16 round will begin on January 29 and conclude on March 12, with a one-week break on February 19.

After the draw, Maccabi head coach Pini Gershon said, “It could have been a better draw, but it also could have been worse.
The group we got is right in the middle. I’ve already heard that here, everyone is discounting Barcelona as a threat; so what if they beat Panathinaikos twice and crushed Siena by 30 points?
They’re also saying Real is no big deal; so what if they destroyed Malaga in the Spanish league?
Here everyone is an expert at making things seem like they should be easy.
I think we got a good place in the middle, and that’s what we’re going to deal with.”

Maccabi chairman of the board Shimon Mizrahi said, “I think all of the teams are good, including Alba Berlin.
Real Madrid is an excellent team; Barcelona is at their peak right now.
My hope is that we’ll be in one of the top two spots in the group after this round.
It’s impossible to know what will be, because we don’t know yet the order of the games.
I prefer to start and finish at home, but it doesn’t always work out that way.”

Maccabi assistant coach Sharon Drucker added, “We drew to two teams with ability and tradition, Barcelona and Real, two teams from the Spanish league which is very strong in Europe.
Alba Berlin is also a tough team to be ranked fourth.
I think it’s an open house, and anyone can beat any of the others.
Our ambition is, first of all, to win all of our home games, and we must play better in away games.”

Lior Eliyahu said, “The two Spanish teams will be tough, but we have to play our game.
It’s definitely a tough draw.
The best teams in Europe play in the Top 16, and in our group any of the teams can beat the others.
We have to keep our home court advantage, and we have to win at least one away game in order to advance to the next round.”