Final in an unusual format
PRE-GAME BREAKDOWN
The final series of the VTB United League will be played up to four wins for the first time.
After the victory over Loko, the Red-Blues spent a day returning home through Stavropol, got a day off, after which they worked in Krylatskoye and Megasport.
There are 12 main team players at the disposal of the coaching staff, plus a quartet from the second team - Filip Gafurov, Vladimir Karpenko, Kirill Popov and Yuri Umrikhin.
Vladimir Ivlev underwent successful surgery on his injured knee and began rehabilitation.
PRE-GAME QUOTES
Dimitris Itoudis, CSKA head coach:
It’s going to be a long series, we are looking forward to Game 1. We know that Zenit is a very competitive team, their chemistry has not been changed drastically, almost 80 percent of the players remained, most of those who left came back. Their system is very good. We have played already 6 times against them, including preseason games. Very interesting series, we have to approach Game 1 as there is no tomorrow, no other games, we need to hustle because the finals are about physicality, heart, concentration and a lot of details.
"RELATIVITY" CONNECTIONS
Zenit newcomers Egor Vyaltsev, Sergey Monya and Vitaly Fridzon spent long period of their careers in CSKA - two, three and five years, respectively.
Zenit guard Dmitry Kulagin played for CSKA in the youth categories and professionally from 2015 to 2017. He helped the team win the 2016 EuroLeague title.
Andrey Zubkov was a teammate of Nikita Kurbanov in Lokomotiv-Kuban during 2014-15 season.
Alexey Shved was a teammate of 7 Zenit's players at Khimki Moscow Region. He played with Monya (2015-21), Vyaltsev (2015-21), Fridzon (2007), Zubkov (2017-19), Sergey Karasev (2019-21), Jordan Mickey (2019-21) and Igor Volkhin (2017-20).
Jonas Jerebko will also face his ex-teammates from Khimki - Monya (2019-21), Vyaltsev (2019-21), Karasev (2019-21), Mickey (2019-21) and Volkhin (2019-20)..
Maksim Karvanen played for CSKA-2 in the 2018-19 season.
PAST MATCHUPS
Wins-losses: 21-8 (5-0 in EuroLeague, 18-0 against Triumph Lyubertsy)
Games of the 2021-22 season:
12-Oct-2021. EuroLeague. Regular season. CSKA – Zenit: 77-67 (+10)
17-Jan-2022. VTB United League. Regular season. Zenit - CSKA: 81-68 (-13)
14-Mar-2022. VTB United League. Regular season. CSKA – Zenit: 79-78 (+1)
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
