Towards the end of the year, the basketball club «Astana» will hold a return home game against St. Petersburg «Zenit» in the VTB United League. Two months ago in the away match, our guys lost to the team from the Neva and are now serious about revenge.The game will take place on Saturday, December 26, in Nur-Sultan, beginning at 15:00 Nur-Sultan time.
ATTENTION! — The match will be held without spectators, with empty stands.
Zenit is a Russian professional men's basketball club from the city of St. Petersburg, founded in 2014. In addition to participating in the VTB United League, they play in the Euroleague.
Achievements:
- Bronze medalist of VTB United League — 2015/2016, 2016/2017, 2017/2018
- Bronze medalist of the Championship of Russia — 2016-2018
- Finalist of the Russian Cup — 2015/2016
“Zenit” is the first team with which “Astana” will meet again this season of VTB United League. In the first game, which took place on the rivals' court in St. Petersburg on November 1, our team suffered a major defeat with a score of
85:52, which is currently the most serious defeat for «Astana» this season. Since that game, Petersburgers have played 15 games, of which only three in the VTB United League, and all the other 12 matches “Zenit” played in the Euroleague — 5 defeats and 7 wins. As of the three matches in the VTB United League, the team from St. Petersburg won two victories, beating «Zielona Gora», and winning UNICS at home. But in the last away game “Zenit” lost quite a lot to “Lokomotiv-Kuban”. This defeat was the first and so far the only one in the VTB United League for “Zenit”.
Standings:
«Zenit» is now the leader in the standings with seven wins in eight games. In fact, the start of the season in the VTB United League was not the most difficult for the St. Petersburg team. In addition to “Astana” they played twice and won “Zielona Gora”, were stronger than “Khimki”, and also won against “Kalev” and “Tsmoki-Minsk” and took an important victory in the match with UNICS. “Lokomotiv-Kuban” in the last game broke the winning streak of “Zenit”. “Astana” is not doing so well, our guys are on the tenth line of the table, having won three victories in nine matches. Of the nine games at home, they played only twice, losing to CSKA and «Nizhny Novgorod». Our team won three victories in seven away games. The match with “Zenit” will be only the third home game this season, and although the opponent is very strong, we will believe that “Astana” is called a “home” team for a reason. In case of victory, the team of Emil Rajkovic will rise to the ninth line, and in case of defeat, it will remain in the tenth position.
Changes in the roster:
From November 1 in the line-up of “Zenit” no changes have occurred.
Leaders of the opponents:
The leaders of the team are the Lithuanian center Arturas Gudaitis — the most effective and American guard Billy Baron — the most productive. By the way, both of these players did not play in the match against «Astana» in November. Another five «Zenit» players score twelve or more efficiency points in each game — forwards Mateusz Ponitka, Alex Poytress and Andrey Zubkov, as well as guards Austin Hollins and Kevin Pangos. KC Rivers and Vitaly Fridzon, as well as forward Will Thomas, are engaged by the coaching staff from the start of the games.
The match will take place on Saturday, December 26 in Nur-Sultan at the arena of the Republican cycle track «Saryarka», starting at 15:00 Nur-SUltan time. The online broadcast of the match will be available on our website in the
Match Center section, as well as live on the
QazSport TV channel.
Detailed information about the tournament, tournament tables, schedule, and match results are published in the
Tournaments section.
