Zenit U21 will face CSKA-Junior on the road

The youth team of the Blue-White-Sky Blues will face CSKA-Junior in Moscow on November 18 and 19. The two-game series will take place as part of the regular season of the VTB United Youth League.

Currently, both teams have played 14 games. Zenit U21 holds second place in the standings, having won 13 matches. The army team are one spot below, having suffered one more defeat — in the last round, Artur Urazmanov’s team stumbled in the second away game against PARMA-M (73:55). The leader of the regular season remains Moscow’s MBA-MAI-Junior, which has played more games and holds 17 wins and one loss (to the Blue-White-Sky Blues in Saint Petersburg).

The last time Zenit U21 and CSKA-Junior met in an official match was in the semifinals of last season. In that tough and dramatic game, the opponent came out on top with a 93:89 victory. At the end of the Final Four, the red-blues took silver, while the Zenit team won the bronze medal match.

At the start of the season, the hosts’ top scorer is guard Kirill Grigoriy, who averages 13.8 points in 22 minutes on the court.

Zenit U21 head coach Roman Knyazev shared his expectations for the upcoming round:

Games against CSKA are always highly principled. On top of that, we are close to each other in the standings, and every win is very important. The opponent will be motivated after their last unsuccessful game, and we, in turn, will try to show our best basketball and an extreme level of concentration.

The matches will take place on November 18 at 14:00 and November 19 at 13:00. Both games will be held at the Dynamo Sports Palace. The broadcast will be available on the VTB United Youth League website as well as on VK Video.