17.12.2024

A little over two weeks have passed since the first-round meeting with Samara, and now, on the banks of the Volga, our team will face a seriously changed opponent…

After russification

Forced restructuring

The game in Moscow turned out to be one of the most difficult for the Red-Blues in the last month, even despite the final difference. The trio of Samara legionnaires played for the team for the last time that day, and the guests of Megasport gave CSKA a real fight. In the middle of the third quarter, Drazen Anzulovic's team had "+7", and the visitors had to give it their all to turn the tide of the game.

Literally within the next week, all of Samara's foreigners, except for the head coach, were forced to leave and get jobs at other clubs. At the same time, the team did not seem to have lowered its playing level. In the very next game, the team sensationally beat Lokomotiv-Kuban, then lost to Nizhny and were close to a surprise again at their trip to Saratov.

Now it doesn't even make sense to look at the average statistics of the Samara team for the season. It is more logical to pay attention to the four games of the "post-crisis" December. Here, the leader is center Ilya Popov (17.8 points, 5.5 rebounds), the CSKA alumni Anton Kardanakhishvili (14.8 points, 4.8 rebounds, 7.8 assists, 2.0 steals) and Alexander Gudumak (13.0 points, 7.5 rebounds, 1.5 blocked shots) look great.

Leaving home

As usual in the days around the New Year, our team is forced to play a series of games away from home. Now a difficult period with three trips in a row is starting for the Red-Blues. The Muscovites went to Samara on a charter flight – so that they could quickly return home immediately after the game. Ahead, before Catholic Christmas, they have to fly to Krasnodar via Stavropol and to Saratov.

"We are starting a series of tough away games, at the beginning of which we have a difficult game in Samara," noted CSKA head coach Andreas Pistiolis. "We had difficulties in the recent home game against this opponent, and we need to give it our all if we don't want to create problems for ourselves in tomorrow's game."

Past matchups

Wins-losses in VTB League: 5-0

2024-25 VTB League regular season game:

01-Dec-2024. CSKA – Samara: 97-77 (+20)

Brief dossier

BC Samara

Founded: 1976
Colors: blue, white
Homecourt: Vladimir Vysotsky Palace of Sports (5,000)
President: Kamo Pogosian
Head coach: Drazen Anzulovic
Website: bcsamara.com
Trophy case: Russian League bronze winners (1996, 97), Superleague 1 champions (2019, 21), Russian Cup winners (2020, 22)

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