The VTB United League is back: the Kazakh players of Astana, who won the national Cup, returned from Atyrau, reunited with the foreign players, and headed to Samara, where Oleg Kiselev's team will play another match of the second stage of the regular season.
Here is the information about today's rival: the club was founded in 1976 on the initiative of the Honored Coach of the USSR Genrikh Primatov, in the city, then called Kuibyshev. The team was called «Builder» at the beginning of its journey.
Since 2003, Samara has focused on developing youth basketball, and in the summer of 2012, the professional status was returned to the club. The team twice became the champion of the Super League (seasons 2018/19 and 2020/21) and won the Russian Cup twice (seasons 2019/20 and 2021/22). This season in the VTB United League is a debut for the club.
Astana head coach Oleg Kiselev performed as a player for Samara in the 1998/99 and 2000/02 seasons. And in 2006-2009, Olympic champion Valery Tikhonenko, the ex-general director of Astana, headed the Russian club.
Now the team of Sergei Bazarevich is one of the main favorites to reach the playoffs. Astana needs to win every game.
«Frankly speaking, we lost two games with Samara at the first stage of the regular season, and of course, we want to rectify the situation. At the moment, we have certain problems in communication: while one part of the players participated in the Cup of Kazakhstan, the other trained separately. But we must compensate for all this with full dedication and energy in defense», - Oleg Kiselev, head coach of Astana, said before the game.
The match starts at 21:00 Astana time. You can watch the game on the club's official website.
Detailed information about the tournament, standings, schedule, and match results are published in the Tournaments section.
 «Samruk-Kazyna» National Welfare Fund |
 Uniform operator «Tourism Industry and Sports Support Fund» |
