EUROLEAGUE – Euroleague quarter-finals tip off on Tuesday

MADRID (Euroleague) - The Euroleague wars will be fought again on Tuesday night when the quarter-finals swing into action in Spain and Greece.

Real Madrid will square off against Power Electronics Valencia in one mouthwatering showdown while Caja Laboral are at home to Maccabi Tel Aviv, Regal Barcelona hosts Panathinaikos and Montepaschi Siena visit Olympiacos.

Madrid could not have had a more difficult build-up to their best-of-five showdown with Valencia.

Ettore Messina stepped down as coach after the team's blowout loss at home to Montepaschi Siena at the end of the Top 16 and on Saturday night, the team lost point guard Sergio Rodriguez to a torn thigh muscle.

The former Spain international playmaker will be out of action for a month, which means he has no chance to play in the Valencia series.

Clay Tucker also had a nasty fall in the overtime defeat at Unicaja Malaga and is uncertain for Valencia game due to what the club called a "contusion" on his lower back.

Valencia have lost their captain Victor Claver and big man James Augustine to injuries with neither to play in the series.

Even before the injuries to Madrid’s players, Valencia's back-up center Serhiy Lishchuk said to FIBA.com he felt his team had a great chance of progressing.

"Real Madrid changed coach and they have a lot of problems inside the team," he said.

Lishchuk remembers how difficult it was for his own team at the beginning of the campaign when they suffered numerous defeats before the decision to make a coaching change and bring in Svetislav Pesic.

"We had very good players but we played very, very bad," Lishchuk said.

"The same situation is in Madrid. We'll see.

"But we have a great chance of reaching the Final Four."

“I think that, as long as injuries don't haunt us anymore, we're good,” Valencia coach Svetislav Pesic said on the club’s website.

“We have practiced well, in a good atmosphere. We know Real Madrid is favorite but we also want to win so we are awaiting this first game with confidence and motivation."

It's difficult to look past Regal Barcelona, the defending champions, although their coach Xavier Pascual expects a very tough fight.

"This playoff series is going to be very close," Pascual said.

"Every game is going to be like a final.

"Panathinaikos have one of the best teams in the Euroleague.

"The outside players are extremely versatile and very difficult to defend.

"We will need to play our best game in order to beat them.

"But we need to focus just on the first game for now."

Australia international Aleks Maric is back from injury for Panathinaikos and could see action against Barcelona.

Maccabi are playing on the road at Caja Laboral but a lot of people will be calling them the favorites in this tie.

The Israeli giants had the unfortunate situation of playing against Barcelona in the Top 16 and finished second in that group.

"Maccabi is one of the most important teams in European basketball in terms of tradition and their current roster," Caja Laboral coach Dusko Ivanovic said.

"We do not want to think beyond the first game."

One of the players to emerge as a key man for Olympiacos this season is Zoran Erceg.

A player that could be in the Serbia national team squad come EuroBasket 2011, Erceg said: "We worked really hard to get the home advantage and must not waste it, but this doesn’t mean that we will win only with this.

"We have to play well to have a lot of concentration and to control the game.”

While Ioannis Bourousis has returned from injury for Olympiacos, it’s not known if Marko Keselj will be fit to play for the Reds.

FIBA