Game of the Week: A clash of the reigning Italian and Spanish champions

VENICE (Italy) - Umana Reyer and Perfumerias Avenida Salamanca celebrated in a big way at the end of last season as they won their respective domestic Championship titles and will now go head to head for the first time in EuroLeague Women.

The rides that both clubs went on last season were not too dissimilar, because prior to landing silverware in their own leagues, Umana Reyer made the Final of EuroCup Women and Avenida made the title game in EuroLeague Women.

They're both ambitious and gunning for a spot at the Final Four at the end of this season, so will it be the reigning champions of Italy or Spain that draws first blood in this maiden match-up?

The live broadcast of the game between Umana Reyer and Perfumerias Avenida Salamanca will be freely available on the EuroLeague Women YouTube channel, as well as on Facebook and Twitch, at 19:30 CET on Wednesday, October 20.

Form guide: Perfumerias Avenida land in Venice for their first road game of the season in the tournament having made home advantage pay during the first two weeks with wins against MBA Moscow and TTT Riga. Domestically, they are 4-0 in Liga Feminina, although did have to suck up an early Spanish SuperCup loss.

Similarly, Umana Reyer also lost the Italian SuperCup, but have opened up 3-0 in league action, while in EuroLeague Women they dismantled KSC Szekszard and pushed UMMC Ekaterinburg hard on the road, but just came up short.

Last meeting: This is a historic match-up as these two clubs have not previously met in EuroLeague Women and have actually always dodged each other when competing in EuroCup Women too.

Silvia Dominguez has a long and impressive track record at this level and three EuroLeague Women titles to her name

Key matchup: With three-time EuropLeague Women champion Silvia Dominguez still going strong and showing her veteran playmaking class for Avenida, it will be interesting who she faces. It could be live-wire guard Yvonne Anderson, or the underrated and steady hand of Debora Carangelo. But whatever happens, surely the key-match up will be at the point guard position, taking into account the potentially most important 'X-factor' in this game.

X-factor: Tempo and taking care of the ball. Avenida have been ruthless in punishing sloppy handling by their opponents so far, with a massive 20 points off turnovers per game. Meanwhile Umana Reyer have looked after the ball really well (only UMMC have fewer turnovers) and so if they keep this up they will force Avenida into finding points from other sources.

Wednesday, October 20

Group A
ZVVZ USK Praha v KSC Szekszard - 19:00 CET
BLMA v UMMC Ekaterinburg - 20:00 CET
Group B
Galatasaray v VBW Arka Gdynia - 19:00 CET
Basket Landes v Dynamo Kursk - 20:00 CET
Spar Girona v Fenerbahce Safiport - 20:00 CET

Thursday, October 21

Group A
TTT Riga v MBA Moscow - 18:00 CET
Group B
Sopron Basket v Beretta Famila Schio - 18:00 CET

FIBA