Both Hapoel Tel Aviv and Hapoel Holon get back to continental action when they face Besiktas and Nanterre respectively on Tuesday night. The Reds will look to move a game over .500 in EuroCup play in a game (21:00 Israel time) that will take place in Belgrade and not Istanbul due to the security concerns for an Israeli team traveling to Turkey. The Purples will be playing a “home game” (21:30) in Szombathely, Hungary at the Savaria Arena as they will try to even up their record at 1-1 against the LNB squad.

Hapoel head coach Stefanos Dedas said, “We are expecting a tough game against one of the best teams in the completion as they have any of the same players and coaching staff as they had last year. They knocked us out of the EuroCup last year and we want to exact revenge in a sporting way. There will be ups and downs during the game, but we must show character in order to achieve the victory.”

Tomer Ginat added, “We learned last year that every game is decisive and the game against Besiktas is also very important for us. We are coming in with confidence after our first victory last week, but we will play tomorrow with mixed feelings about what is still happening in Israel, a year after the disaster that befell us on October 7th. We will do what we can to bring victory and make our fans and community happy in this difficult time.”

Over at Holon, Guy Goodes, the Holon coach who will be without the injured Elijah Mitrou-Long and Yotam Hanochi commented, “Our goal, of course, is to win on our ‘home court’ against a good team, even though they have lost two games. We are coming into this game with some issues including illnesses and injuries, but for us, on Tuesday we will put things aside and those who can will give it their all to achieve their first victory in the Champions League, that is the main goal.”

“Obviously, it’s not easy to play without a point guard and another key player in the rotation, but we think about those who are here and not about those who are missing. Everyone will have to give extra, both on defense and on offense attack and in terms of concentration. At the moment we have around 8.5 players including eight veterans and Eliad Tal who is a young player without experience, but he did play in the preseason games and showed some good things. We will try to do our best to achieve victory,” the coach added about the state of the squad.