On Wednesday our team will begin the second leg of Euroleague regular championship with the road game against Armani Jeans Milano.
Traditionally CSKA arrived to Milan on Tuesday’s evening. And one more time the team has only 11 players on a roster – except for the injured J R Holden and Artem Zabelin, Alexey Shved and Andrey Vorontsevich stayed in Moscow for their army service.
Armani Jeans coach Piero Bucchi will not use veteran Joey Beard who is out for personal reasons. At the same time Pape Sow will return to action.
"Milan still have a chance to qualify, - CSKA coach Ettore Messina said. - And in my opinion they did not collect all the points they deserved. So we will not be surprised if we will face very difficult game. For me it will be the first visit to Italy this season and to tell you the truth I don’t like to play in Italy. I afraid to put some extra responsibility, extra pressure on my players because I always want to see the best game playing in my homeland. As for our team, it plays now with confidence. The return of Matjaz Smodis is very important for us and if he will be OK tomorrow I will probably put him into the starting five. I also like the way Victor Khryapa has played these past games. Holden is getting better and in the best case I would like to use him for several minutes in the game against Real."