BARCELONA, 8 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Club Joventut Badalona and Gran Canaria met their rivals this Friday in the 2022/23 Eurocup group stage, a path to the title that ‘Penya’ will face, among other teams, against the Turkish Frutti Extra Bursaspor, the 2022 finalist, while the Canaries will play against three newcomers to the competition.
The new edition of the Eurocup kicked off this Friday with the draw for the group stage, which divided the 20 teams from 14 countries into two groups with a regular season schedule of 18 games, although the final schedule will be determined in the coming days.
In group A is Joventut, who will face Bursaspor, Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana, Umana Reyer Venice, Germani Brescia, Ratiopharm Ulm, Lietkabelis Panevezys, Mincidelice JL Bourg en Bresse, U-BT Cluj-Napoca and Prometey Slobozhanske.
In the case of Gran Canaria, the yellow team was drawn in group B against three newcomers, such as Hapoel Tel Aviv from Israel, Paris Basketball from France and the London Lions from Great Britain.
Together with them, Buducnost VOLI Podgorica, Dolomiti Energia Trento, Turk Telekom Ankara, Promitheas Patras, Hamburg Towers and Polish Slask Wroclaw make up the table.
“We want to be in the qualifiers. We have to learn the lesson of last season, knowing that it is only one game, we will have to be in the best shape at the right time”, said the president of the ‘Penya’, Juanan Morales, as reaction to the draw.
“We hope to go as far as possible in the European Championship. Who knows, maybe the final. When you play a competition you do it to win, so that’s how we will face it,” said the Catalan club’s top president.
For his part, the general manager of Gran Canaria, Juan Ramón Marrero, highlighted the difficulty of the group. “The group was going to be tough no matter what, but it’s important to finish building our team and make it as competitive as possible when the Eurocup starts in October, in order to have a good season,” he explained.
“The most important thing is that we are back in the EuroCup, luckily we are a club with a great background in the competition, which means that we are also doing a good job in our national league,” he said.