The Euroleague draw took place in Barcelona today. Our team will play in Group C against TAU Ceramica, Maccabi Tel Aviv, Lottomatica Roma, Olimpia Ljubljana and the qualifying round winner.
Euroleague schedule:
Qualifying round: September 29 – October 9;
Regular season: October 21 - January 14;
Top 16: January 27 - March 11;
Quarterfinal Playoffs: March 23 - April 7;
Final Four: May 7 - May 9.
The schedule will be announced later.
Andrei Vatutin, PBC CSKA CEO:
"The Group is exactly what we need. We have a new-old team, the new head coach, the new strategy, and as much motivation as ever. We need to prove that we are ready to show the result in more difficult conditions. And Group C will allow us to show that we are a capable team immediately, from the first game. Among the rivals, of course, I’d like to mention Maccabi and TAU - branded clubs for Moscow. Nevertheless, I hope that USH CSKA will be sold out for each game, because for us every game will be a challenge, and the team needs the support of fans more than ever."
Evgeny Pashutin, CSKA Moscow head coach:
"The group is very strong. First of all, I will mention Maccabi, which won the Euroleague twice in the past six years and is constantly playing in the Final Fours. Tel Aviv team has Pini Gershon back as a head coach and sets the highest goals again. In addition, it is always difficult to play in Israel – they have very active fans and their 10.000 arena is always packed.
TAU is also a club, which participates in the Final Fours regularly and, even without winning the title, looks very decent, always playing at the highest level. Plus, the team returned Dusko Ivanovic, well known throughout Europe as emotional, strict and committed to aggressive basketball coach.
Lottomatica is a club with great traditions, which is on the way of revival. This is a good team with character, ready to battle against the leader and always striving to win.
Olimpia is a team with the national colors, always having in its roster many talented Slovenian players. It is known to raise the players for the national team. I would say that my experience of playing in Ljubljana was always very difficult. They love basketball and know how to play - since know this firsthand as we have two Slovenians on the team.
We do not yet know the opponent from the qualifying round, but there are no weak teams there, so I look forward to meet the high-level club. I can say that we will seriously prepare for the tournament."
VTB Teams:
League&Tournament:
