Together!
PRE-GAME BREAKDOWN
All tickets are sold. And this is also a historical fact: this is the first sold-out for Megasport in the VTB League, and a new season record for the league itself! The arena is full, which means fans are becoming a huge factor in the pre-game breakdowns.
The Red-Blues got a rest day after returning from St. Petersburg and are ready for the culmination of the season. The team had a video session, a meeting and practice.
PRE-GAME QUOTES
Dimitris Itoudis, CSKA head coach:
We are excited. If somebody told me that we will play deciding game of the season in front of our fans in Moscow, I would have take it. We are waiting for this game to start. It’s good that we have no tickets left, thank you to the fans. That means they have huge expectations, and they going to support the team.
"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: 24-10 (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)
20-May-2022. VTB United League. Final. CSKA – Zenit: 83-59 (+24)
22-May-2022. VTB United League. Final. CSKA – Zenit: 82-73 (+9)
25-May-2022. VTB United League. Final. Zenit - CSKA: 93-79 (-14)
27-May-2022. VTB United League. Final. Zenit - CSKA: 110-111 2OT (+1)
30-May-2022. VTB United League. Final. CSKA – Zenit: 95-97 (-2)
01-Jun-2022. VTB United League. Final. Zenit - CSKA: 82-63 (-19)
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
