Beat The Expert: Who's taking the honors in this week's Spanish derby?

MUNICH (Germany) - It's promises to be a red-hot last week of action before the international break, headlined by the all Spanish matchup between Casademont Zaragoza and Valencia Basket Club 

It's our Game of the Week and with six other fixtures to be enjoyed on Tuesday, plus another on Wednesday night there's plenty to enjoy as usual. This also includes taking part in our 'Beat the Expert' game, with all fans having the chance to cast their votes, while Sweden star Elin Eldebrink picks up the baton as our Guest. 

Game of the Week: Casademont Zaragoza vs Valencia Basket Club

A relatively new powerhouse rivalry in Spanish basketball, this is the first ever EuroLeague Women meeting between both clubs and you can guarantee it will be intense, gripping and played out in front of some seriously noisy and passionate home fans in Zaragoza. The hosts are 2-2 in their rookie campaign in the competition and the last time they played on their own court, they almost upset 2023 champions Fenerbahce Alagoz Holding. Their impressive start has been helped enormously by some excellent field goal shooting.

Meanwhile, Valencia Basket Club started the season with a loss but quickly put that behind them and are gunning for a fourth straight win to further improve their current 3-1 record. They will likely try to utilize their depth of rotation to wear down their opponents.

You can watch the live broadcast of the game between Casademont Zaragoza and Valencia Basket Club with commentary on the EuroLeague Women YouTube channel on Tuesday, October 31 at 20:15 CET.

Key matchup: It's going to be fascinating to see which Valencia player is given the task of shitting down Leonie Fiebich. The versatile German baller is now the bonafide marquee star of this Zaragoza team and because of her size, brings a real inside-outside threat. 

She is shooting 50 percent from long-range which is exceptional, but will also use her height to crash the glass too. Valencia might struggle on this matchup, with Queralt Casas possibly too small, despite her quickness - although her defensive qualities might push the mission in her direction. Rebecca Allen could also be an option as she has the size to compete with Fiebich and whether it is one of these two, or indeed someone else on the Valencia roster, it is a massively critical task. 

Predictions: The Expert vs Elin Eldebrink

Each week our resident EuroLeague Women expert Paul Nilsen faces a different guest challenger in our prediction game. Fans also have the chance to show their prediction skills in the voting below. The first four weeks of action have seen our expert keeping himself in pole position in the race.

Our guest for Week 5 is Sweden's highly regarded guard Elin Eldebrink, who's played with six different EuroLeague Women teams in the competition during her distinguished club career - as well as excelling while wearing national team colors.

SCHEDULE	THE EXPERT	ELIN ELDEBRINK
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 31
ACS Sepsi-SIC vs DVTK HUN-Therm
KGHM BC Polkowice vs Serco UNI Gyor
ZVVZ USK Praha vs Villeneuve d'Ascq LM
Basket Landes vs Perfumerias Avenida
Casademont Zaragoza vs Valencia Basket Club
Beretta Famila Schio vs LDLC ASVEL Feminin
Polski Cukier AZS UMCS Lublin vs Fenerbahce Alagoz Holding
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 1
Virtus Segafredo Bologna vs Cukurova Basketbol Mersin

Do you have what it takes?

Predict the winners of this week's games below!

Season predictions so far:

The Expert: 28/32 (87.5%)
The Guest: 24/32 (75%)
The Fans: 25/32 (78%)

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Number of the Week: 6

Ezi Magbegor is one of the form players in the competition and battling to be October MVP. It's not only her buckets and boards that have her as a frontrunner. since four games into the season, she's the unrivalled 'Swat Queen' with a staggering 13 so far. This is almost twice as many as any other player. It is also mainly down to the 6 blocks she collected last week against Perfumerias Avenida. Last season, she was the only player to get 6 or more in a game and took the season-high with 7 in a game with Sopron Basket. 

Question of the Week: Which winless French club will get a victory first?

It seems almost ludicrous to be asking this question as we enter Week 5 of the season, but it is the reality of LDLC ASVEL Feminin and Basket Landes being a combined 0-8 at this point. Two great clubs in one of the top leagues on the Continent, it is surely time for one of them to shine and get off the mark. Going 0-10 is even more unthinkable if they don't get it done this week. So how will it unfold and who will get that elusive victory first? Basket Landes host Perfumerias Avenida and LDLC ASVEL Feminin are at Beretta Famila Schio.

Let us know what you think in the poll below!

FIBA