Pre-game breakdown
The Army Men spent the whole Friday to go to St.Petersburg and had full practice on Saturday in Yubileiny.
The same 13 players came to Neva banks.
Word to the coach
Dimitris Itoudis, CSKA head coach:
The team’s mood is good. We played seriously in Milan, we bounced back after losses to Barcelona and Loko. Zenit is very serious, dangerous team that has everything – enthusiasm, athleticism, they play a lot of transition game, scored more than half of their points in primary and secondary fast breaks, on individual plays. They have a lot of scorers – Karasev, Kuric, Simonovic, Harper, others. They have post game, they can drive like Voronov, they create off it.
Past matchups
Until the last season Zenit was the only Russian team in the league that never beat the Army Men. Before the lost in St.Petersburg CSKA won 23 games in a row (including 18 games against Triumph Liubertsy).
2014-15 – VTB United League. Regular season. Zenit – CSKA: 57-81 (+24)
2014-15 – VTB United League. Regular season. CSKA – Zenit: 102-86 (+16)
2015-16 – VTB United League. Regular season. CSKA – Zenit: 113-77 (+36)
2015-16 – VTB United League. Regular season. Zenit – CSKA: 82-86 (+4)
2016-17 – VTB United League. Regular season. CSKA – Zenit: 105-56 (+49)
2016-17 – VTB United League. Regular season. Zenit – CSKA: 90-77 (+13)
Short dossier
Founded: 2014
Colors: dark-blue, white, light-blue
Homecourt: Yubileiny (7,044)
CEO: Maksim Mitrofanov
Head coach: Vasily Karasev
Website: basket.fc-zenit.ru
