The Euroleague draw and schedule for 2011-12 season favored everyone. The first round starts from Zalgiris – CSKA game on the brand new Zalgirio Arena, and you cannot find better way to start the tournament.
No doubt, 15-thousand Zalgirio Arena will be sold out. At the same time you cannot say that the hosts are more used to it than the visitors. Local club played here just a couple of times, and CSKA roster features 7 players who played here in the Eurobasket playoffs.
13 players boarded Transaero flight 9797 to Lithuania. Dmitry Sokolov and Evgeny Voronov stayed home. At the same time it was decided to take Andrei Vorontsevich who recovered from the back injury.
“Both teams are the historic rivals for each other; everyone remembers teams’ great battles in the 80s during Soviet times,” - CSKA head coach Jonas Kazlauskas said. “The clubs showed themselves in new era too: first, Zalgiris won the Euroleague, then CSKA did it twice. As far as I know all the tickets are sold out long ago. We prepare for the difficult game. Zalgiris gathered well-balanced team this season, so we are waiting for tough fight.”
VTB Teams:
League&Tournament:
