Zenit-2 to host the second leg of the Russian Cup Round of 16

Tomorrow, December 10, the farm team of the Blue-White-Sky Blues will play the second leg of the Gazprombank Russian Cup Round of 16 on their home court. The game against Surgut’s Yugra will take place at the Zenit Basketball Academy (Severnaya Road, 12) and will tip off at 19:00 St. Petersburg time. Admission for fans is free.

As a reminder, the first game was played on November 12 in Surgut and ended in a 89:83 victory for the hosts. To advance to the next round of the Russian Cup, Oliver Popovic’s team must win by more than six points.

Over the past month, both teams have played three games in the FONBET Super League regular season. Yugra played all of their games at home and recorded wins over Chelyabinsk’s CBK (84:70) and Magnitogorsk’s Metallurg (79:63) before the national team break, as well as over Ufa’s Dynamo (90:81) after the pause. Artem Olkhov’s squad is in excellent form and comes into the St. Petersburg game on a five-game unbeaten streak, having defeated some of the season’s leaders.

Zenit-2, meanwhile, spent the previous month on the road. After the trip to Surgut, the Blue-White-Sky Blues defeated the reigning Super League champions Temp-SUMZ Revda (81:85), suffered a narrow loss to Kupol Izhevsk at the end of the game (82:81), and earned an overtime victory against Dynamo Grozny (84:85).

The battle for a spot in the Russian Cup quarterfinals promises to be a hot one. It is already known that the winner of the Zenit-2 — Yugra matchup will face a VTB United League team in the next round — Pari Nizhny Novgorod.

Zenit-2 assistant coach Andrey Semenov shared his thoughts ahead of the second leg:

Playing in Surgut is always difficult. We barely managed to get one win there in the regular season and, unfortunately, lost by six points in the first Cup game. But in reality, six points is not that much for our team, which plays fast basketball. We take a lot of three-point shots with a decent percentage, so Yugra’s advantage isn’t really that scary, and I think we’ll be able to overcome it. The mindset is purely positive — in every game we aim to win.

The match will be broadcast live on the Okko Sport.