{"id":28439,"date":"2009-01-19T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-01-19T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8080\/maccabi-draws-to-group-f-with-barcelona-real-madrid-and-alba-berlin\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T08:26:47","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T05:26:47","slug":"maccabi-draws-to-group-f-with-barcelona-real-madrid-and-alba-berlin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/maccabi-draws-to-group-f-with-barcelona-real-madrid-and-alba-berlin\/","title":{"rendered":"Maccabi Draws to Group F with Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Alba Berlin"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><P class=MsoNormal style=\"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt\"><SPAN style=\"FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: HE\">By Amy Samin<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = \"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office\" \/><o:p><\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P> <P class=MsoNormal style=\"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt\"><SPAN style=\"FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: HE\"><o:p><BR><\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P> <P class=MsoNormal style=\"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt\"><SPAN style=\"FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: HE\">Group E<o:p><\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P> <P class=MsoNormal style=\"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt\"><SPAN style=\"FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: HE\">Tau <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = \"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags\" \/><st1:State w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">Victoria<\/st1:place><\/st1:State><o:p><\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P> <P class=MsoNormal style=\"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt\"><SPAN style=\"FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: HE\">Olympiacos<o:p><\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P> <P class=MsoNormal style=\"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt\"><SPAN style=\"FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: HE\">AJ Milano<o:p><\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P> <P class=MsoNormal style=\"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt\"><SPAN style=\"FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: HE\">Asseco Prokom<o:p><\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P> <P class=MsoNormal style=\"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt\"><SPAN style=\"FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: HE\"><o:p><BR><\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P> <P class=MsoNormal style=\"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt\"><SPAN style=\"FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: HE\">Group F<o:p><\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P> <P class=MsoNormal style=\"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt\"><SPAN style=\"FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: HE\">Regal FC Barcelona<o:p><\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P> <P class=MsoNormal style=\"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt\"><SPAN style=\"FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: HE\">Real <st1:State w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">Madrid<\/st1:place><\/st1:State><o:p><\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P> <P class=MsoNormal style=\"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt\"><SPAN style=\"FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: HE\">Maccabi Electra T.A.<o:p><\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P> <P class=MsoNormal style=\"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt\"><SPAN style=\"FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: HE\">Alba <st1:State w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">Berlin<\/st1:place><\/st1:State><o:p><\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P> <P class=MsoNormal style=\"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt\"><SPAN style=\"FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: HE\"><o:p><BR><\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P> <P class=MsoNormal style=\"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt\"><SPAN style=\"FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: HE\">Group G<o:p><\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P> <P class=MsoNormal style=\"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt\"><SPAN style=\"FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: HE\">Unicaja Malaga<o:p><\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P> <P class=MsoNormal style=\"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt\"><SPAN style=\"FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: HE\">Lottomatica Roma<o:p><\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P> <P class=MsoNormal style=\"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt\"><SPAN style=\"FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: HE\">Panathinaikos<o:p><\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P> <P class=MsoNormal style=\"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt\"><SPAN style=\"FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: HE\">Partizan <st1:City w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">Belgrade<\/st1:place><\/st1:City><o:p><\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P> <P class=MsoNormal style=\"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt\"><SPAN style=\"FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: HE\"><o:p><BR><\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P> <P class=MsoNormal style=\"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt\"><SPAN style=\"FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: HE\">Group H<o:p><\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P> <P class=MsoNormal style=\"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt\"><SPAN style=\"FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: HE\">CSKA <st1:City w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">Moscow<\/st1:place><\/st1:City><o:p><\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P> <P class=MsoNormal style=\"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt\"><SPAN style=\"FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: HE\">Montepaschi Siena<o:p><\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P> <P class=MsoNormal style=\"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt\"><SPAN style=\"FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: HE\">Fenerbahce Ulker<o:p><\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P> <P class=MsoNormal style=\"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt\"><SPAN style=\"FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: HE\">Cibona<o:p><\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P> <P class=MsoNormal style=\"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt\"><SPAN style=\"FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: HE\"><o:p><BR><\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P> <P class=MsoNormal style=\"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt\"><SPAN style=\"FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: HE\">In the Top 16 draw held today in <st1:City w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">Barcelona<\/st1:place><\/st1:City>, Maccabi Tel Aviv drew to Group F, together with <st1:City w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">Barcelona<\/st1:place><\/st1:City>, Real Madrid and Alba <st1:State w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">Berlin<\/st1:place><\/st1:State>.<SPAN style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\"><BR><\/SPAN>Maccabi escaped being placed in the \u201cgroup of death\u201d with CSKA and <st1:City w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">Siena<\/st1:place><\/st1:City>.<SPAN style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\"><BR><\/SPAN>Panathinaikos drew to a very tough group that includes <st1:City w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">Malaga<\/st1:place><\/st1:City>, and Tau\u2019s group with Olympiacos will also not be an easy one.<SPAN style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\"><BR><\/SPAN>It is the latter group, E, that Maccabi will be matched up with should the team advance to the next round.<o:p><\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P> <P class=MsoNormal style=\"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt\"><SPAN style=\"FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: HE\"><o:p><BR><\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P> <P class=MsoNormal style=\"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt\"><SPAN style=\"FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: HE\">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.<SPAN style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\"><BR><\/SPAN>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\u2019s court, and a fifth game, if necessary, will be played back on the top team\u2019s home court.<o:p><\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P> <P class=MsoNormal style=\"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt\"><SPAN style=\"FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: HE\"><o:p><BR><\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P> <P class=MsoNormal style=\"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt\"><SPAN style=\"FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: HE\">The Top 16 round will begin on January 29 and conclude on March 12, with a one-week break on February 19.<o:p><\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P> <P class=MsoNormal style=\"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt\"><SPAN style=\"FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: HE\"><o:p><BR><\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P> <P class=MsoNormal style=\"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt\"><SPAN style=\"FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: HE\">After the draw, Maccabi head coach <B>Pini Gershon<\/B> said, \u201c<\/SPAN><SPAN lang=EN-GB style=\"BACKGROUND: white; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'\">It could have been a better draw, but it also could have been worse. <SPAN style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\"><BR><\/SPAN>The group we got is right in the middle. I\u2019ve already heard that here, everyone is discounting <st1:City w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">Barcelona<\/st1:place><\/st1:City> as a threat; so what if they beat Panathinaikos twice and crushed <st1:City w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">Siena<\/st1:place><\/st1:City> by 30 points?<SPAN style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\"><BR><\/SPAN>They\u2019re also saying Real is no big deal; so what if they destroyed <st1:City w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">Malaga<\/st1:place><\/st1:City> in the Spanish league?<SPAN style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\"><BR><\/SPAN>Here everyone is an expert at making things seem like they should be easy.<SPAN style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\"><BR><\/SPAN>I think we got a good place in the middle, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to deal with.\u201d<o:p><\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P> <P class=MsoNormal style=\"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt\"><SPAN lang=EN-GB style=\"BACKGROUND: white; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'\"><o:p><BR><\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P> <P class=MsoNormal style=\"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt\"><SPAN lang=EN-GB style=\"BACKGROUND: white; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'\">Maccabi chairman of the board <B>Shimon Mizrahi<\/B> said, \u201cI think all of the teams are good, including Alba <st1:State w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">Berlin<\/st1:place><\/st1:State>.<SPAN style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\"><BR><\/SPAN>Real <st1:State w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">Madrid<\/st1:place><\/st1:State> is an excellent team; <st1:City w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">Barcelona<\/st1:place><\/st1:City> is at their peak right now.<SPAN style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\"><BR><\/SPAN>My hope is that we\u2019ll be in one of the top two spots in the group after this round.<SPAN style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\"><BR><\/SPAN>It\u2019s impossible to know what will be, because we don\u2019t know yet the order of the games.<SPAN style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\"><BR><\/SPAN>I prefer to start and finish at home, but it doesn\u2019t always work out that way.\u201d<o:p><\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P><SPAN lang=EN-GB style=\"FONT-SIZE: 10pt; BACKGROUND: white; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Batang; mso-fareast-language: HE\"><BR style=\"PAGE-BREAK-BEFORE: always; mso-special-character: line-break\" clear=all><\/SPAN> <P class=MsoNormal style=\"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt\"><SPAN lang=EN-GB style=\"BACKGROUND: white; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'\"><o:p><BR><\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P> <P class=MsoNormal style=\"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt\"><SPAN lang=EN-GB style=\"BACKGROUND: white; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'\">Maccabi assistant coach <B>Sharon Drucker<\/B> added, \u201cWe drew to two teams with ability and tradition, <st1:City w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">Barcelona<\/st1:place><\/st1:City> and Real, two teams from the Spanish league which is very strong in <st1:place w:st=\"on\">Europe<\/st1:place>.<SPAN style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\"><BR><\/SPAN>Alba <st1:State w:st=\"on\"><st1:place w:st=\"on\">Berlin<\/st1:place><\/st1:State> is also a tough team to be ranked fourth.<SPAN style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\"><BR><\/SPAN>I think it\u2019s an open house, and anyone can beat any of the others.<SPAN style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\"><BR><\/SPAN>Our ambition is, first of all, to win all of our home games, and we must play better in away games.\u201d<o:p><\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P> <P class=MsoNormal style=\"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt\"><SPAN lang=EN-GB style=\"BACKGROUND: white; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'\"><o:p><BR><\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P> <P class=MsoNormal style=\"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt\"><B><SPAN style=\"FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: HE\">Lior Eliyahu<\/SPAN><\/B><SPAN style=\"FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: HE\"> said, \u201cThe two Spanish teams will be tough, but we have to play our game.<SPAN style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\"><BR><\/SPAN>It\u2019s definitely a tough draw.<SPAN style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\"><BR><\/SPAN>The best teams in <st1:place w:st=\"on\">Europe<\/st1:place> play in the Top 16, and in our group any of the teams can beat the others.<SPAN style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\"><BR><\/SPAN>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.\u201d<o:p><\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P> <P class=MsoNormal style=\"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt\"><SPAN style=\"FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: HE\"><o:p><BR><\/o:p><\/SPAN><\/P><SPAN style=\"FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-fareast-font-family: Batang; mso-fareast-language: HE\"><A href=\"mailto:samintranslations@yahoo.com\">samintranslations@yahoo.com<\/A><\/SPAN> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A tough draw for Maccabi: Regal FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Alba Berlin will face Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv in the Top 16.  Panathinaikos is with Malaga, Olympiacos is with Tau, and Siena is with CSKA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28438,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"custom_author":[],"class_list":["post-28439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28439"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28439\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":494905,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28439\/revisions\/494905"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28439"},{"taxonomy":"custom_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/custom_author?post=28439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}