Itoudis: We face the adversities and we are going to overcome them

The Army Men are missing two point guards – Janis Strelnieks and Dani Hackett stayed in Moscow to rehab after injuries together with Will Clyburn. Andrey Lopatin and Alexander Khomenko will play in the away game too – for CSKA-2 in Russian Superleague 1.

The team worked under normal schedule: the Red-Blues practiced at USH CSKA in the afternoon, went to Sheremetyevo and boarded Aeroflot charter flight to Munich.

After a three-game losing streak capped by a 30-point road loss against Zvezda, Bayern this week let go head coach Dejan Radonjic and replaced him with assistant Oliver Kostic.

Pre-game quotes

Dimitris Itoudis, CSKA head coach:

It is hard to miss players, and it happened all of the sudden on the same position. We are obliged to go there and fight, hustle more. We face the adversities and we are going to overcome them. Bayern is a very ambitious club, they’ve changed the coach recently so I expect them to be extra motivated, this is what happens usually after coaching change. We have to match this motivation.

Mikhail Kulagin, CSKA guard:

I am very glad to be back after long absence and tough recovery. I can’t say that it’s hard to come back because this is my fifth season with CSKA, so I know the system. It will be more difficult to play against Bayern away. They have a good team that defends and shoots threes well. We studied their game thoroughly, we are ready and we will give our fight.