Barça welcomes the undefeated Fenerbahçe de Calathes
BARCELONA, 3 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Barça and Fenerbahçe dispute this Friday the great duel of matchday 6 of the Regular Phase of the Euroleague, at the Palau Blaugrana (9:00 pm), with some ‘culés’ who arrive motivated against some Turks who, with Nick Calathes back to the It was his home, leaders and undefeated arrive and as a great touchstone.
Due to their squad and history, both Barça and Fenerbahçe are contenders to be at the top of the table and to fight for the title. At the moment, this first pulse is full of emotion and morbidity, with several reunions between players from both teams. And with the addition of seeing if Barça is the first team capable of sinking their teeth into ‘Fener’.
The Blaugrana players know, because their coach will comment on it, that they must have more motivation than ever, and regularity, to knock down this great rival, in an “unbeatable” way according to Sarunas Jasikevicius himself.
In addition, Barça needs to win to confirm the good direction taken against Emporio Armani Milan on the last day (74-56). With a 3-2 balance sheet, winning would catapult the Catalans and could leave behind –because of the rival they will face– the doubts or hesitation of an irregular start, with defeats against Olympiacos and Zalgiris.
Fenerbahçe leads the table as the only team capable of adding five wins from five games. They have beaten Bayern Munich, Maccabi Tel Aviv, ASVEL Villeurbanne, Valencia Basket and Anadolu Efes Istanbul. And now they are going with everything to assault the Palau Blaugrana.
Without a doubt, the total revolution is bearing fruit. Starting with the bench, with the Greek Dimitris Itoudis giving air to a project that seemed stagnant. He is followed by renowned reinforcements, such as that of a Nick Calathes who returns to the Palau, now as a rival after going from being the culé’s hope to another discontinued point guard before triumphing.
Calathes arrives as motivated as he is furious. Having retaliated before the press for the bad experience under the orders of Sarunas Jasikevicius – who did not want to enter into a war of declarations and respected the base’s opinion -. Now, it will be necessary to see if he can give the maximum of himself on a track that he loved but that longed to see him more days displaying his great basketball.
And he doesn’t come alone, since Nigel Hayes-Davis took the same path as the Greek base of American origin and left Barça to join a Fenerbahçe that promised him more weight and minutes. At the moment, Calathes is the most valued player, rebounder and assistant and Hayes-Davis the one who steals the most balls.
But the morbidity goes in two directions. Barça now has two former Fenerbahçe players in its ranks. First, Nikola Kalinic will try to continue adapting to Barça and show ‘Fener’ that he was wrong to let him go to Valencia in 2020. But, above all, the focus is on Jan Vesely, a former Turkish star with 8 years of experience who now, with Nikola Mirotic injured, seeks to be the Blaugrana beacon.
DATASHEET.
–EQUIPMENT.
BARÇA: Laprovittola, Satoransky, Kalinic, Tobey and Sanli –possible starting quintet–; Da Silva, Paulí, Vesely, Abrines, Higgins, Jokubaitis and Nnaji.
FENERBAHÇE: Calathes, Wilbekin, Pierre, Hayes-Davis and Motley –possible starting quintet–; Birsen, Hazer, Edwards, Mahmutoglu, Jekiri, Guduric and Booker.
–REFEREES: Boltauzer, Hordov and Nikolic.
–PAVILLION: Palau Blaugrana.