By Eurohoops Team / info@eurohoops.net
Participants included VTB United League president Sergey Kushchenko, general director Ilona Korstin, representatives of each Final Four team–Natalia Furaeva (CSKA), Olga Akhsanova (UNICS), Andrey Spiridonov (Zenit) and Pavel Astakhov (Khimki)–as well as Fonbet general director Alexander Paramonov.
The VTB United League president thanked the four teams and the media, while Unics’ vice president said that the team’s goal for the 2017-2018 season was the final four, even if the season had its ups and downs.
Meanwhile, Khimki’s general director stated that this type of format is tough for the teams and the players: “The Final Four format is attractive to the fans, but tough on the teams. Khimki doesn’t have a lot of experience in these types of tournaments, but we do have some, which was quite positive.”
CSKA Moscow finished first in the regular season and now is ready for an upcoming challenge, going up against Zenit. As president Natalia Furaeva stated, it will be a tough game. “We took a very serious approach to the regular season, focused on each game and as a result were able to finish in 1st place. But Zenit is one of two teams that beat us in the regular season.”
For Zenit, this is something new as Mr. Spiridonov stated: “This is a new format for Zenit. We battled injuries all season, which made it difficult.”
Finally, during the press conference, the VTB United League signed Final Four partnerships with Fonbet and Academservice.
The two semifinals will take place on June 8, and will be streamed live from social media network Vkontakte.
June 8, semifinals
CSKA – Zenit, 6:00 PM
UNICS – Khimki, 9:00 PM