Serbia v Puerto Rico – Olympic Qualifications Betting Preview + Prediction
Serbia and Puerto Rico will play the opening match of this year’s qualifications for Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. The teams will face off in Kombak Arena, in front of 18.000 fans. Despite, the hosts being clear favourites, we can expect a great match.
Serbia is being led by the well known Djordjevic, a legend to say the least. Former professional basketball player, who was given the golden badge award for being the best athlete of Yugoslavia in 1995, as well as being declared the sportsman of the year by the Yugoslav Olympic Commite. As for the Serbian team, they have a great chance to qualify for the Olympic Games, for the first time in 12 years. In preparation matches, Serbia has been playing well, beating France (94:88) and Greece (91:76), despite having some problems with their players. Recent wins has given the “Eagles” much needed confidence for the upcoming matches. On the pitch, the team will be lead by no other than Teodosic, who has won his first title of the Euro League with CSKA Moscow.
Line-ups (expected): Teodosic, Markovic, Kalinic, Bircevic, Raduljica
Puerto Rico has started its journey in North & Central America championship with a defeat against Panama, but got back up with 5 consecutive wins against Nicaragua, Cuba, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominican Republic and Mexico. With that they won the championship of Central America. They have won the title without the Barcelona0s guard (Arroyo), who joined the team on tour in Italy, where they lost to Canada (91:97) and Italy (70:83). Guard Barea was excellent at the championship, with 11.8 PPG and 6.4 APG, he was declared the MVP of Centrobasket. We must also mention centre Ramos, who was included in top 5 players. Puerto Rico has some quality players in their team, but we can expect the team to focus their offensive game to Arroyo.
Lineups (expected): Barea, Arroyo, Wassallo, Sanchez, Ramos
As stated before, Serbia is favourite, and there is little to no doubt that they will win this one. Puerto Rico has shown us they are decent team, with performances in Centrobasket last month. With that in mind, we can expect a good fight from them, and that’s why I choose a pick; Puerto Rico +18.
Prediction: Puerto Rico +18
Odds: 1.79 Pinnacle
