Enisey Krasnoyarsk with the 1st chance to win vs. U-Banca Transilvania

This encounter is very interesting because it’s opposing 2 from the best teams in the Fiba Europe Cup, each one with real chances to reach the superior stages of the competition, including semifinals and even the final act. If both teams would have similar circumstances, would have been a real derby, open to any result, but now, because of a couple of factors, the Russian team has to prevail without problems against the visitors:

  • the Romanian team travelled a lot to reach Krasnoyarsk, changing planes and reaching the destination after a journey of 30 hours. They will be very tired like many other teams coming from Europe to Siberia to face Enisey.
  • the change of time zone is affecting a lot any team in the world and there are 5 hours difference between Romania and Krasnoyarsk
  • The host team had an entire week to rest before this encounter with U-Banca Transilvania, playing no game in VTB League. For this reason, Enisey will be very fresh at the game time.
  • Enisey is a strong team at home, where this season they surprised even the Euroleague reigning champions, CSKA Moscow. Last week, they destroyed Sodertalje Kings with more than 20 points margin.
  • Enisey has lost surprisingly in the opening round of the Fiba Europe Cup at Balkan Botevgrad, but they have competed there, in Bulgaria, without some key players, who were injured. Now, these players are back and Enisey will have a full roster, with experienced players and very deep rotation. Instead of this, U-Banca Transilvania can rely only on their 6 quality foreigners, helped from the bench by modest role players.

I expect Enisey to win this game by at least 8 points margin, defending their home-court and trying to reach the 1st spot on this group. On the other side, U-Banca Transilvania is a very motivated team, with many skilled fellows and, of course, they will fight to steal the victory against all odds.

Photo: Fiba Europe Cup

Gratian Cormos

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