{"id":476744,"date":"2026-01-01T17:12:02","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T16:12:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/?p=476744"},"modified":"2026-01-01T17:12:02","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T16:12:02","slug":"olympiacos-face-crucial-greek-derby-as-transfer-deadline-approaches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/olympiacos-face-crucial-greek-derby-as-transfer-deadline-approaches\/","title":{"rendered":"Olympiacos Face Crucial Greek Derby as Transfer Deadline Approaches"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-start=\"246\" data-end=\"478\"><strong data-start=\"246\" data-end=\"287\"><span class=\"hover:entity-accent entity-underline inline cursor-pointer align-baseline\"><span class=\"whitespace-normal\">Olympiacos Piraeus<\/span><\/span><\/strong> will open 2026 with what is widely considered the most intense game of their season, as they travel to face archrivals <strong data-start=\"407\" data-end=\"448\"><span class=\"hover:entity-accent entity-underline inline cursor-pointer align-baseline\"><span class=\"whitespace-normal\">Panathinaikos Aktor Athens<\/span><\/span><\/strong> in the Greek Derby on Friday.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"480\" data-end=\"738\">With a 9\u20137 record and a game in hand, Olympiacos know that a victory is crucial to remain firmly in the EuroLeague playoff picture. However, the derby arrives at a moment of added pressure, as the club is also racing against the clock on the transfer market.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"740\" data-end=\"1062\">The EuroLeague deadline for transfers between EuroLeague clubs expires in just four days, forcing teams still evaluating roster changes to move quickly. Head coach <strong data-start=\"904\" data-end=\"945\"><span class=\"hover:entity-accent entity-underline inline cursor-pointer align-baseline\"><span class=\"whitespace-normal\">Georgios Bartzokas<\/span><\/span><\/strong> confirmed that Olympiacos remain active, while stopping short of offering specifics ahead of such a pivotal matchup.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1064\" data-end=\"1285\">\u201cA lot of teams are active on the market right now, and that\u2019s visible, especially because of the January 5 deadline,\u201d Bartzokas said. \u201cWe are present, but we have a game tomorrow, and I wouldn\u2019t like to comment further.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1287\" data-end=\"1424\">Speaking again before the derby, Bartzokas reiterated that the club\u2019s front office continues to explore options to strengthen the roster.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1426\" data-end=\"1618\">\u201cOlympiacos is still present on the market, but for me to sit down and think about that the day before the match is not my role,\u201d he explained. \u201cWe obviously have people responsible for that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1620\" data-end=\"1791\">Bartzokas added that the coaching staff is working closely with ownership to identify potential reinforcements, aware that the decisive phase of the season is approaching.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1793\" data-end=\"1967\">\u201cWe give recommendations on how to strengthen the team, together with owners who want to help, because trophies are decided in the upcoming part of the season,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cWe give recommendations on how to strengthen the team, together with owners who want to help, because trophies are decided in the upcoming part of the season,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145,"featured_media":420464,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_spbk_hide_featured":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[199,249],"tags":[],"rumors":[407],"typology":[183],"posizionamento":[],"class_list":["post-476744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-euroleague","category-greece","rumors-basket-rumors","typology-rumors"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2024\/12\/IMG_8722.jpeg","digistream_id":0,"digistream":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/145"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476744"},{"taxonomy":"rumors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rumors?post=476744"},{"taxonomy":"typology","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/typology?post=476744"},{"taxonomy":"posizionamento","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posizionamento?post=476744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}