“Khimki” have arrived in Nur-Sultan and are clearly determined to take revenge for the previous defeat, in addition, it is worth noting that their roster has changed, and since the last game the head coach has changed. The game will take place on Saturday 12 February, starting at 19:30 Nur-Sultan time.
ATTENTION! — In connection with the restrictive measures introduced in the capital due to the coronavirus pandemic, the match will be held without spectators with empty stands.
«Khimki» - is a Russian professional men's basketball club from the Moscow region, founded in 1997. In addition to participating in the VTB United League, they play in the Euroleague.
Achievements:
- Silver medalist of the Russian Championship — 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019
- Bronze medalist of the Russian Championship — 2007
- Winner of the Russian Cup — 2008
- Champion of VTB United League — 2010/2011
- Silver medalist of VTB United League Cup Promo — 2008
- Silver medalist of VTB United League — 2014/2015, 2016/2017, 2017/2018, 2018/2019
- Finalist of the European Cup ULEB — 2008/2009
- Finalist of the European Cup — 2005/2006
- Participant of the FIBA Euroleague Final Four — 2004/2005
- Participant of the «Final Four» of the VTB United League — 2009/2010
- Winner of the European Cup — 2011/2012, 2014/2015
This season “Astana” won a victory over the Khimki team. In October, our team won a historic victory over «Khimki» for the first time in the away match. In a very tough struggle, the Kazakhstani team managed to snatch that victory with an advantage of only one point. After the game, the Moscow Region team played eight more games, of which they won four. They lost away to «Avtodor» and «UNICS», and already this year they lost twice at home — again to «UNICS» and «Lokomotiv-Kuban». The Moscow team won two victories against «PARMA» — at home and away, and also beat CSKA at home and «Lokomotiv-Kuban» in the away game.
Tournament position:
This season, “Khimki” have played 13 games and won 6 of them, this result allows the Moscow Region team to be on the seventh line of the standings, although they went down to eighth place during the season. “Astana” has already held 14 games and so far our team has only 4 victories and 10th line in the standings. The result of the game will not in any way affect the position of “Khimki”, but in case of defeat “Astana” will again allow “Yenisey” to the tenth position, and they themselves will go down to the eleventh.
Lineup changes:
There have been significant changes in the roster, and of course, first of all, they affected the coaching staff. The post of the head coach of “Khimki” was left by the Lithuanian specialist Rimas Kurtinaitis, and along with him the assistant coaches Robertas Kunkaitis and Gedrius Kurtinaitis left the team. American Greg Monroe and Swede Jonas Zherebko left the team.
Russian specialist Andrey Maltsev was appointed to the role of the head coach. Andrey has an impressive career as a player, he played for 18 years, most of which he spent in “Spartak” in St. Petersburg. He began his career with this team, though still in Leningrad, and, by the way, ended his career also in “Spartak”. In between playing for the St. Petersburg team, he played in Saratov «Avtodor», which was then called «Avtodorozhnik», the Turkish «Yeshilyurt», the Swedish «JB Knights», the Chinese «Shanghai Sharks», and the Czech «Mlekarna». He also began his coaching career in “Spartak”, and then spent almost 15 years in the “CSKA” system, coaching the second teams. This season, he moved to the Khimki system, first starting work in the Khimki-Podmoskovye farm team, then becoming an assistant in the main team, and now taking the position of acting head coach. Serbian specialist Aleksandar Trifunovic, who was the head of «Astana» from the middle of the 2013/2014 season to the middle of the 2014/2015 season, was appointed to assist Andrey. In addition to that Aleksandar has experience as a coach in such teams as Serbian “Crvena Zvezda”, Greek “Panionis”, Russian “Spartak” and Lithuanian “Lietuvos Rytas” and “Zalgiris”. And after “Astana” he headed the Turkish “Yesilgersun Bilideye” and “Pinar Karsiyaka”, as well as “Igokea” from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
As for the players, the main reinforcements came from Kazan. American guard Errick McCollum, who spent the last two and a half seasons at «UNICS», and before that played in Israel for the teams «Elitzur Netanya» and «Hapoel Kfar Sava», in Greece for the teams «Apollo» and «Panionios», in China in the teams “Zhejiang Golden Bulls” and “Beijing Royal Fighters”, in Turkey in the teams “Galatasaray” and “Anadolu Efes”. With “Galatasaray” he became the winner of the EuroCup. The most experienced guard came to «Khimki» from «Zenit» — the European champion 2007, as well as the bronze medalist of the 2012 Olympics, Anton Ponkrashov, who at one time played in “Khimki” on loan from CSKA. Forward Evgeny Valiev has been with Khimki since 2019 but played for Khimki-Podmoskovye, and last season played for rent in PARM. Center Andrey Desyatnikov also came from the Khimki-Podmoskoye farm team. In addition, two more young players from Khimki-Podmoskovye joined the main team — forward Sergey Klyuev and guard Daniil Kasatkin.
Rival leaders:
Alexey Shved, as always, leads the Moscow Region team into battle and is the most productive and efficient player in the squad. Devin Booker is showing excellent results, although he last entered the court more than a month ago. Jordan Mickey is out in almost all of the team's games, missing just one, and is one of the main players. Dairis Bertrans and Vyacheslav Zaitsev are constantly on the court. Sergey Monya and Egor Vyaltsev entered the battle in the last games of the team. Let us not forget Errick McCollum, who is also used by the coaching staff on an ongoing basis and gives him twenty minutes on the court.
The match will take place on Friday, February 12, in Nur-Sultan at the arena of the Republican cycle track «Saryarka», beginning at 19:30 Astana time. Live broadcast of the match will be available on our website in the
Match Center section.
Detailed information about the tournament, tournament tables, schedule and match results are published in the
Tournaments section.
