Xavi Pascual opens the Russian expedition of Real Madrid
MADRID, 26 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Yubileyny Sports Palace in Saint Petersburg will mark this Tuesday (7:00 p.m.) the start of a demanding home tour of Real Madrid, starting with its double commitment in Russia that it faces in a good situation in the Euroleague, but ‘chopped’ after fitting his first defeat in the Endesa League.
Gran Canaria managed to end unbeaten in the national competition of the white team, which will play its next four games away from Madrid: Saint Petersburg, Kazan, Vitoria -in Liga Endesa- and Munich.
“Complaining about the calendar would be absurd,” remarks Pablo Laso, who at least recovers Sergio Llull, overcome a shoulder problem, and has taken a total of 14 players to Russia, including youth center Eli Ndiaye. On the other hand, the Americans Nigel Williams-Goss, Trey Thompkins and Anthony Randolph are still out, the last two increasingly close to reappearing.
After linking three consecutive victories in front of their people in the Euroleague, the challenge for Real Madrid (4-1) is to make their home debut, since in their only outing to date they succumbed to Olympiacos (74-68).
For its part, Zenit (3-2) has been beaten by Barça (84-58), although this game can be described as an ‘accident’, since it is performing at a very good level like last season, when He was just one victory away from the ‘Final Four’ precisely against the Barça team.
Outsider Jordan Loyd, a former Valencia Basket player, leads the Russian team’s attack along with shooter Billy Baron. Already without Kevin Pangos or Will Thomas, two pillars last year, he does maintain the wisdom on the bench of Xavi Pascual and good interior artillery with Arturas Gudaitis or ex-Madrid player Jordan Mickey. In addition, Zenit has the added incentive of trying to beat Real Madrid for the first time, which came out of the three previous games with flying colors.
DATASHEET.
–EQUIPMENT.
ZENIT: Loyd, Kulagi, Ponitka, Mickey y Gudaitis –posible quinteto inicial–; Karasev, Kuzminskas, Zubkov, Poythress, Frankamp, Baron y Volkhin.
REAL MADRID: Heurtel, Causeur, Hanga, Yabusele and Tavares –possible initial quintet–; Llull, Poirier, Taylor, Rudy Fernández, Abalde, Alocén, Vukcevic and Ndiaye.
– REFEREES: Jovcic, Paternico and Koromilas.
– PAVILION: Yubileyny.