Before Moscow MBA Andrei Lopatine in an interview with , he expressed hope that his team would be able to successfully complete the first game of the second stage of the VTB United League Championship against CSKA .
– According to the results of the first stage of the MBA, being a beginner in the championship, I entered the top 6. Did you expect such success from you?
– Well, at the beginning of the season, of course, nobody expected anything. But now it can no longer be called a surprise. This is the result of our work in “pre-season” and during the championship. We worked hard, the preparation for the season started quite early. In general, I’m very happy that we took a place in the top six. I would like to get a foothold in the second round to have home court advantage.
– On Sunday, you will play the third game of the season against your home club, CSKA. Does the principle of such meetings remain for you or does it disappear?
– I also didn’t have a fundamental subtext in the first game. Now I’m already in the MBA. It’s clear that CSKA is my home club, and it brought me a lot, but still, I’m listening to this match like the others. I connect to all teams the same way, at least I try. I hope that will continue to be the case.
– What do you expect from the upcoming game?
– Of course, we have already shown that we can play with the champions – we won the game with Zenit. Therefore, we can beat both UNICS and CSKA. All that remains is to work and believe.
– Are you able to compete for the top three this season?
– I think I can do it. I repeat, the main thing is to believe in it and keep working. Even despite the fact that injuries occur and some key players may not be there, we are still all for each other.
– How would you rate your form now?
– Everything is fine. Thank God there are no injuries, healthy, intact – this is the most important thing.
This season, the championship takes place in two stages. According to the results of the first stage, the top 6 teams entered Group A and automatically qualified for the playoffs. They will compete for home-court advantage in the playoffs. The other 6 will compete in Group B and play for the remaining two places in the quarter-finals.
Group A: CSKA (Moscow), UNICS (Kazan), Zenit (St. Petersburg), Nizhny Novgorod, MBA (Moscow), Lokomotiv-Kuban (Krasnodar).
Group B: Samara, Parma (Perm), Avtodor (Saratov), Enisey (Krasnoyarsk), Astana, Minsk.
CSKA took first place in the first stage of the regular season, MBA – in fifth place.
The match between CSKA and MBA will take place on January 29 and will start at 15:00 Moscow time. You can watch the live broadcast of the match on the channel, starting at 2:55 p.m.
A source:
Source : MatchTV
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