The night was short on Wednesday for the Bayern basketball players. They were full of adrenalin after a 80-79 triumph the EuroLeague champs from Athens and yet packing for another important game just two days later. The next morning the team around coach Dejan Radonjic met again to get in the mood for the away game at FC Barcelona on Thursday evening at 21:00. After a light training session the departure to Spain was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.
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The third EuroLeague game for Bayern will be broadcast live by "Telekom Sport" (among others Entertain TV) and "FC Bayern TV" - like every match of the Bavarians. The next home game of the BBL standings leader will be on Sunday (21.10., 18:00) as they duel with the likewise undefeated Telekom Baskets from Bonn (6-0 pts each).
Barça vs. Bayern - this duel is now also in basketball again at the highest level, attractive aspects included. There will be a reunion with Svetislav Pesic, the Munich head coach in 2014, who had to resign from his position in Munich two years ago for health reasons. Last February, the 69-year-old once again followed the call of Catalonia's top club, which he led to a triple win including the EuroLeague in 2003. Pesic immediately brought glory to the Catalans by winning the trophy with a final victory over Real Madrid.
Reunion with Svetislav Pesic and Koponen's return
Pesic junior, managing director for Bayern, Marko Pesic, is looking forward to a family duel, while Bayern-Guard Petteri Koponen after two years in Barcelona also meets familiar faces. However, his ex-colleagues have not been successful to start their new EuroLeague campaign. A 95-75 loss against co-favorite ZSKA Moscow was followed on Tuesday by an unfortunate 87-86 stumble in a Spanish game against Gran Canaria.
24 points for the shooter, Kyle Kuric (19.5 ppg/
St. Petersburg) and 18 points from the Croatian center, Ante Tomic were not enough. The second notable entry at the Guard position, Kevin Pangos (11ppg /Kaunas) missed a half-court shot in the final second to win.
"It will certainly not be easier for us now after the narrow defeat in Gran Canaria, on the contrary, Barcelona now wants to strike back," Bayern-Center Leon Radosevic knows. "They have a deep bench and many players with EuroLeague experience. Besides, we only have one day to prepare and have to travel. But the conditions are the same for everyone and we've drawn confidence from our victory over Panathinaikos."
Coach Radonjic: "It's clear to all of us that it's going to be difficult".
Team captain Danilo Barthel says: "Maybe in the first match against Efes we were a bit surprised how the EuroLeague is played. Now we've confirmed that we can learn from our mistakes and find our way around at this level. But we should not be imagining things like that. We now have to act in Barcelona in the same way: more physically, with fewer mistakes on defense. But it's going to be very difficult there again, because they want to win at home and they have a lot of experience."
Dejan Radonjic says: "Our first time with two EuroLeague games in one week will be an interesting experience, a real challenge. Barcelona, of course, is very good again, especially away. They have a great coach and many excellent players. We have to concentrate on our game and our tasks, then hopefully we'll get into the game just like we did against Panathinaikos. It's clear to all of us that this will be difficult."