From minus to plus

The visit to Barcelona will bring the portion of heat into frosty days of our team’s schedule. CSKA flies to Catalonia to play the final game of the Euroleague regular season.

Transaero flight number 9797 took 12 players on board – those who participated in the game against Lokomotiv-Kuban. Andrey Vorontsevich continues to practice individually in Moscow, Zoran Erceg rehabilitates in Israel, trio of juniors stayed to practice with the junior team. Russian champions went from “-12” outside in Moscow to “+12”. CSKA traditionally decided not to practice on the night before the game which will become the third “Euroleague Game of the Week” for CSKA this season.

It is also a dream for army men to jump from minus to plus not only on thermometer. “-21” in the home game are not forgotten and though the task looks incredible CSKA is not giving up the chance to take the first place in a group. At least the team will try.

“One month passed since our first meeting in Moscow which resulted in painful loss”, – CSKA head coach Ettore Messina said. “But over this time we improved significantly and we want to come and play watching eye to eye at our opponent. I am realistic and I understand that it is almost impossible to win by big margin against one of the best teams in Europe. It will be difficult game but we will come to fight until the last second. One of our goals is to prove, first of all to ourselves, that we deserve to be a contender, to play in 2013 Final Four.”