Today Astana will play one more home game in the VTB United League. Minsk came straight from the capital of Belarus to the capital of Kazakhstan.

Let us recall a brief information about this club: The club of the same name from Belarus was founded in 2006 and started in the VTB United League in the 2010/11 season, a year earlier than Astana. Since then, the Kazakh and Belarusian clubs have met 19 times on the court, with the score being 9:10 in favor of Minsk.

Like us, before the start of the current season, our opponent rebranded, removing the word «Tsmoki» in the name and changing the logo.

Like Astana, Minsk is a hegemon within its own country. Fourteen Belarus champion titles and the same number of national Cups — since 2009 the club has had no competitors in the domestic arena.

As part of the VTB United League, everything is much less cheerful: Rostislav Vergun's team has only one victory, and even that is the minimum — 63:61 against Enisey on the road. The duel with Astana in the capital of Belarus, which took place on December 25, was unsuccessful for the Minskers: the Kazakhs won with a score of 76:65.

As for the opponent's players, it is worth highlighting Vladislav Bliznyuk. He has  12.1 points per game on average, realizing 80.4% free throws and 4.5 assists per game. Among the imports, there are Americans Zach Smith and Supreme Hannah, as well as Serbs Ognjen Pantovic and Jovan Šljivančanin. 

«Minsk is a team that is always motivated not to give up for all 40 minutes, regardless of who they play with. We must do our best to win in each game episode, demonstrate the required level of toughness in defense and take rebounds. These factors will decide the outcome of the meeting,» said Oleg Kiselev, head coach of Astana, before the game.

The match will be held at the Saryarka cycle track and will start at 20:00. Tickets are on sale at  Zakazbiletov.kz.

Detailed information about the tournament, standings, schedule, and match results are published in the Tournaments section.