FIBA Europe Cup - Thursday Focus: Week 5

MUNICH (FIBA Europe Cup) - In a longer-than-usual FIBA Europe Cup week, action will carry over to Thursday with the two remaining games of Week 5 on the schedule.

However, both of the contests will be of utmost importance for the likes of Siauliai and Sopron, who simply have no room for error if they want to keep at least theoretical hopes of advancing to the new round.

That being said, for both teams, the situation is heavily dependent on other results and even winning all remaining games might not be enough to secure qualification.

Meanwhile, their opponents, Apoel Nicosia and Antwerp Giants respectively, have much more realistic chances of qualifying to the Second Round and wins this week would help tremendously.

While Apoel will have to wait for the final week of action to find out its final fate no matter the results on Thursday, a victory in Hungary would be enough to progress for the Giants.

Remember, you can watch tonight’s action, like all FIBA Europe Cup games, FREE and LIVE on YouTube.com/FIBA.

Apoel Nicosia (2-2) - BC Siauliai (0-4), 18:00 CET

Inspired by an amazing Murphy Burnatowski performance last week, Apoel registered possibly their most important victory of the Regular Season against BK Pardubice.

Having grabbed the head-to-head tie-breaker against their Group J counterparts from Czech Republic, the Nicosia side got itself on the inside lane for second place on the group table.

However, a surprise Pardubice win on the road against Tsmoki Minsk inserted quite a bit of uncertainty into the group standings, with the possibility of a three-way tie between Pardubice, Apoel and Tsmoki becoming ever so real.

In this scenario, Apoel would claim the first place in the standings due to previous results. The Cypriot club would also have the edge against Pardubice if the teams finished with an equal number of wins.

However, Apoel will still need to win both of its remaining games to finish in one of the two automatic qualification spots, unless Pardubice loses to Siauliai in the final round. 

Only a miraculous turn of events can save the winless Siauliai who have a very narrow path to qualification that would require winning both of their remaining games by large margins, crossing their fingers and hoping for a lot of dominos in other games to fall into place.

They could, however, easily spoil the situation for either Apoel or Pardubice who they face next week. Both of these sides will welcome Siauliai at home after claiming convincing wins in Lithuania.  

Qualifying as one of the best third-placed teams could also be a possibility for Apoel, but they would also require favourable results in other groups.

Sopron (1-3) - Antwerp Giants (3-1), 18:30 CET

With two weeks remaining, two things are clear for Sopron. Firstly, that the Hungarian side needs to win against Antwerp Giants and preferably by a substantial margin. And secondly, even that might not be enough to qualify.

Having lost to the Belgian side 88-67 on the road in Antwerp, the hosts of Thursday’s Group D clash need to get the head-to-head tie-breaker at all costs if they plan on finishing second in the standings.

This scenario would also have to involve Sopron winning against FC Porto in the final round of action and Antwerp picking up a loss on the road in Nanterre.

The other options look much more favourable to the Giants who can clinch a place in the Second Round by keeping the tie-breaker against Sopron or, if that fails, winning in France next week.

Qualifying as the best third-placed team could prove a difficult, yet not impossible, task for the lower ranked of the two teams, were they to finish the Regular Season with equal 3-3 records, as wins against FC Porto would be discarded.

With only two spots per conference reserved for the best third-placed teams, the competition is fierce across the board and it is still too early to call the favourites in this race, but one qualifying win might not be enough.

FIBA