Panathinaikos and Olympiakos had rather favorable draws for the Euroleague group stage on Thursday, but PAOK will have a hard task to make it through the qualifiers.
Holder Panathinaikos will be in the same group as Russian CSKA Moscow, Spanish Unicaja Malaga, Lithuania’s Zalgiris Kaunas, Bamberg from Germany and KK Zagreb from Croatia.
Panathinaikos will be the host at the opening game of the Euroleague against Unicaja Malaga on October 17.
Olympiakos has been pooled with Caja Laboral and Bilbao of Spain, Turkey’s Fenerbahce Ulker, Cantu of Italy and Nancy of France.
For PAOK to make the group stage, it will have to overcome three hurdles. First the Thessaloniki team must see off Turkish side Galatasaray, with the home and away games starting on September 29 at Pylaia. The winner of that tie will play against the team to emerge from the French battle of Villeurbanne vs Gravelines and if PAOK is still alive it will face Cibona Zagreb, Cholet, Lietuvos Rytas or Buducnost for a place in the Euroleague group stage. If, after three qualifying rounds, PAOK has made it to the group stage, it will find itself in the same pool as Real Madrid, Maccabi Tel Aviv, Partizan Belgrade, Anadolu Efes Istanbul and Armani Milano.
