We are now at Round 7 of the Euroleague and the stakes are extremely high for all teams participating.  With the games coming up, we want to preview the top matches and provide insight. A lot of basketball fans are gearing up for the game by participating in EuroLeague betting, and there is certainly a lot of money to be won if the right bets are made.  Let’s take a look at the intriguing storylines heading into Round 7.

Winning and Losing Streaks

FC Barcelona Lassa will travel to Zalgiris Kaunas on Friday night. Barcelona on a hot streak and will be traveling to Lithuania full of confidence after winning four consecutive games. Zalgiris, has the strange distinction of having won on every road trip, but having lost every home game so far this season.

This matchup will be particularly meaningful for Kevin Pangos, who left Zalgiris to join Barcelona this summer. Pangos has had a good start to his season and is hoping to step up and show his old team what they are missing as Zalgiris goes in search of that elusive first home win.

Top Coaches Face Off

David Blatt and Zeljko Obradovic are two of the top basketball coaches in the EuroLeague and will face each other for the first time when Olympiacos Piraeus and Fenerbahce Istanbul meet in Greece.  Fenerbahce has won five out of six games so far, while the Reds have lost three of their last four. The teams appear to be on different trajectories, so it will be interesting to see how this one shakes out.

Olympiacos fans are starting to feel nervous as the team would drop to 3-4 with another home loss this week. It would be a very difficult start to overcome. Blatt has been preaching patience with his new team and has stated that it may take some time before we can expect to see them at their best. A win over Fenerbahce would certainly provide a huge morale boost for the team and put them on the path to success this season.

Can CSKA Keep It Up?

FC Bayern Munich now has the opportunity to hand CSKA Moscow its first defeat of the season. CSKA is now 6-0, but many of those contests have been close battles. In CSKA’s last two games, both Herbalife Gran Canaria and AX Armani Exchange Olimpia Milan put up valiant efforts before falling to the Russians.

Bayern will come into the game with a lot of confidence, having handled Panathinaikos, KIROLBET Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz and Darussafaka Tefken Istanbul in its last three home games to even their record at 3-3. Last week, Bayern put on a record-breaking performance to fight to a 116-70 victory. CSKA will certainly not go down so easily and Coach Dejan Radonjic and his team have a huge task ahead of them if they want to be the first to take down CSKA.

Efes has been electric

Anadolu Efes Istanbul has played a lot of nail-biters lately. Three of the team’s last four games have been decided in the final seconds.  Last week’s in at Gran Canaria was preceded by another thrilling win over Khimki Moscow Region, and before that a last-second loss at Milan.

Panathinaikos is now the next in line to go down to the wire.  The team is back on the road again after last week’s thrilling win over Olympiacos. Greens are no stranger to close calls, with four of their six games being settled by 5 points or less. Both teams come into the game with a 4-2 record, and a win would be extremely helpful for both teams. If recent history is any indicator, expect this one to be a close match that goes down to the wire.