Translated material
Turkish Gambit
CSKA will play against Efes Pilsen in the quarterfinals of the Euroleague
CSKA basketball players completed their performance in the second group stage of the ULEB Euroleague and recognized their opponent in the quarterfinal series - the Turkish club Efes Pilsen from Istanbul, well known to the army team.The “red-blues” entered the away match of the last round of the “Top 16” stage against the Spanish local “Taugres” already as the early winner of Group “F”. From a moral point of view, the team from the Basque city of Vitoria, which 10 thousand fans came to support, needed victory in this meeting much more from a moral point of view. The hosts won with a score of 70:63, taking revenge on their eternal rivals. In the adjacent group “G”, in parallel with the match “Taugres” - CSKA, battles took place between the Greek “Panathinaikos” and the Italian “Benetton” and the Croatian “Cibona” against “Efes Pilsen”. The Athenians won the first meeting - 81:70, and in Zagreb success was on the side of the Istanbul club - 84:77. A unique situation arose in the group. All four teams finished with the same results - three wins and three losses.
If the competition were held according to the rules of the International Basketball Federation, to distribute places it would be necessary to calculate the ratio of points based on the sum of all six matches and operate in thousandths. ULEB prefers to use regulations that are more understandable for the common man and take into account not the ratio, but the difference in game points. Essentially, this is the same thing, but it’s much more convenient to count. Panathinaikos took first place with +28, Efes Pilsen (-1) took second place, and Benetton (-12) and Cibona (-15) dropped out of further competition.
The matches of the quarterfinal series CSKA - Efes Pilsen up to two victories will be held on April 4 in the Russian capital, a day later in Istanbul and, if necessary, on April 13 again in Moscow. The army team will meet with their former teammate, American Antonio Granger. He is Efes Pilsen's most productive player and averages 14 points per game.
Key basketball players from rival CSKA also include Granger's compatriot Henry Domerkant, Turks Kaja Peker and Ender Arslan, Croatian national team players Nikola Prkacin and Marko Popovic. There is also a very exotic figure - the only holder of Albanian sports citizenship in the ULEB Euroleague, Ermal Kurtoglu. True, he has lived in Turkey for a long time and already plays for the national team of this country. The last time CSKA played against Efes Pilsen was in the second group stage of the Euroleague 2002/03. The army team lost on the road - 69:71, and celebrated their success on their site - 66:54. In the Turkish Championship, the Istanbul team with 20 victories in 24 matches are now in second place, behind only their fellow countrymen from Ulker.
“Many people think: CSKA is lucky, because the team will meet Efes Pilsen in the quarterfinals, and not Panathinaikos. However, I categorically disagree with this,” said the head coach of the “red-blues,” Italian Ettore Messina. - At this stage there simply cannot be weak opponents, and the Istanbul club is no exception. Efes has a sufficient number of tall basketball players who are capable of creating serious pressure under the boards. Our centers Alexei Savrasenko and Thomas van den Spiegel will clearly have more work to do in the upcoming matches. As for the former army player Granger, he will probably do his best to prove to CSKA that it was in vain that we did not leave him on our team.”
And yet the preliminary layouts clearly speak in favor of the Muscovites. Messina's team had a very powerful game at the Top 16 stage, winning five wins in a row and losing only in a meaningless match. When, near the end of the first stage, the main center David Andersen was seriously injured and was out for the rest of the season, few believed that CSKA would be able to adequately compensate for this loss. Of course, van den Spiegel does not yet look as preferable as Andersen, but due to some changes in the pattern of the game, increased assistance to the centers from the forwards in the fight on the second floor, CSKA has not become weaker at all.