CSKA — Zenit, 20 January 2023

PRE-GAME BREAKDOWN

For Zenit, this will be the second game in a row in Moscow, and a very important one. Not just because CSKA won in St. Petersburg, but because last Sunday the blue-white-blues unexpectedly lost to the MBA in overtime.

The red-blues had quite a lot of time to prepare between games, and therefore the coaches tried to evenly distribute the load. At the last practice before the game, all 12 basketball players worked out - with the exception of Vladimir Karpenko and Filipp Gafurov, who played for CSKA-2 that evening as well as injured Semen Antonov.

PRE-GAME QUOTES

Emil Rajkovic, CSKA head coach:

Zenit is a very serious opponent. They have deep roster and good coach, they have continuity from the last season and their injury problems are gone. Now I think they have all players available. I think it will be a very interesting game in a great atmosphere. I hope that we will be happy in the end.

PAST MATCHUPS

Wins-losses: 25-11 (5-0 in EuroLeague, 18-0 against Triumph Lyubertsy)

Game of the 2022-23 season:

01-Nov-2022. VTB United League. Regular season. Zenit - CSKA: 80-85 (+5)

SHORT DOSSIER

Zenit St.Petersburg, Russia

Founded: 2014
Colors: dark-blue, white, light-blue
Homecourt: SIBUR Arena (7,120)
CEO: Alexander Tserkovny
Head coach: Xavi Pascual
Website: basket.fc-zenit.ru