Crvena Zvezda and Cedevita have already met three times this season, but this is without any doubt the most important match so far for both sides
Despite the fact that more than 7.000 people will be cheering for the other team in the arena on March 15. 2016, Cedevita has reasons to believe that they can seize a valuable triumph in Belgrade. They have already done that this season, as the Zagreb team have beaten Crvena Zvezda twice in e regular part of the competition and they hope to stay undefeated against the rivals from Belgrade in the ABA League.
The kick-off time is at 18.45 CET, and the return game is scheduled for next Tuesday in Zagreb. At the press conference in Belgrade yesterday, Cedevita's head coach Veljko Mršić and captain Miro Bilan spoke about the forthcoming opening game:
Veljko Mršić, Cedevita head coach:
“First of all, I would like to congratulate Crvena Zvezda on very good results in the Euroleague TOP 16 stage. We came here to play a good game and I hope we have a high-quality semifinal series ahead of us. After all, this is the first time in the history of the regional competition that two teams from the Euroleague TOP 16 will face each other in the semifinals. After the match against Unicaja, we have had 5 days to prepare ourselves for the upcoming clash, so I expect that we play a good game and to try to return to Zagreb with a win.”
Miro Bilan, Cedevita captain:
“A high quality and a very demanding opponent is playing against us tonight. Although we are not in our best form, we were training hard and we hope to repeat some of our best performances of the season in order to be a worthy rival to the home team. They have been playing very well recently, so the key is to stay in the good rhythm throughout the whole game. We just can’t have ups and downs like in the last Euroleague game against Crvena Zvezda when we got defeated here by a 20 point margin.”
