Translated material
Battle of megacities
In the Euroleague, Moscow clubs turned out to be stronger than Istanbul clubs
At the end of the first round of the main group stage of the ULEB Euroleague, both Russian participants met with clubs from Istanbul. Our teams have played very successfully against opponents from Turkey in recent years, and this week was no exception. The leader of octet “C” and the current winner of the CSKA trophy on the road defeated Fenerbahce - 74:64. The capital's Dynamo team defeated Efes Pilsen on the parquet floor of the Moscow Sports Palace in Krylatskoye - ????The “red-blues” went to Istanbul after an extremely painful defeat in the domestic championship from Kazan UNICS. Italian coach Ettore Messina's team not only lost by an unbecoming difference of 18 points, but also allowed their opponents to cross the three-digit mark in terms of performance. Therefore, the victory over Fenerbahce was very important psychologically. Compared to the previous Euroleague match with the Spanish Barcelona, Messina made one change in the starting lineup. Instead of center David Andersen, Slovenian forward Matjaz Smodis entered the court.
The opening of the match was left to the guests, who immediately took a five-point lead. True, before the short break the hosts were already ahead, and the army team had problems in attack for some time. Fenerbahçe, in whose lineup the strong Latvian Kaspars Kambala stood out for his powerful and persistent play, gradually went ahead by six points. The hosts defended tightly, often fouled, and the CSKA basketball players could only rely on the accurate execution of free throws.
In their typical style, the army team began to increase momentum after a ten-minute rest. The third quarter of the game again became decisive for the outcome of the match. The most famous Fenerbahce players Mirsad Turkan and Ibrahim Kutluay found themselves tied hand and foot by the CSKA defense. Between them, these two fairly well-known basketball players scored only 15 points, and with such an indicator the leaders will not go far. In the third period, the hosts could not hit the “red-blue” ring for four minutes. During this segment, the Muscovites managed to catch up with their opponents. And then there was no stopping the guests. Two shots from Theodoras Papaloukas from behind the six-meter line could not have come at a better time. The army team began to completely control the course of the game and won their sixth victory in the tournament. The Red-Blues' most productive player, Smodis, brought the team 21 points, a dozen of which he scored with long-range shots.
“Fenerbahçe is on the rise, and it was very difficult to play against the Istanbul team,” Messina stated. - The defeat from UNICS could not but affect the general condition of our basketball players; at the beginning of the meeting we did not have the usual concentration. The advantage when fighting on someone else's defense became key for CSKA, although we dealt with the versatile Kambala with great difficulty. Damir Mrsic also had a great game.”
Dynamo, after a long break, took to the court in the Euroleague match, center Lazar Popandopulo, who missed four rounds due to injury. It was the 2005 European champion as part of the Greek national team that brought the lion's share of the shackles to the “blue and white” team in the starting period. The hosts were in the lead throughout the match, their advantage reached a dozen points, but Efes Pilsen did not allow them to achieve more and constantly kept Dusan Ivkovic’s team on their toes, every now and then getting dangerously close in the score. Dynamo still managed to maintain the trend of their performances in the current Euroleague - victories at home and defeats on the road.