Levski Lukoil" (Bulgaria) - "Prometey". Champions League qualification. 1/4 finals. September 14. 17:00. Sofia (Bulgaria). "Arena Armiets Sofia". Broadcast - "XSPORT", prometeybc.com
On Tuesday, September 14, the current champion of Ukraine "Prometey" will make his debut in the qualification of the Champions League - the main FIBA European Cup tournament. Ronen Ginzburg's team will play against Bulgarian champion “Levski Lukoil” in the first qualifying round.
The hosts of the match in the 2020/21 season, as well as "Prometey", won the championship of their country and will now try to conquer another historic achievement. At one time, “Levski” played in the Champions League qualifications. This was in the 2018/19 season, when the oldest Bulgarian club first knocked out the Lithuanian "Siauliai" in the first round of qualification, but in the second one after two matches lost to the Finnish "Karhu", losing the chance to get into the group stage. After that, “Levski” played twice in the FIBA European Cup, reaching the second group round in the 2018/19 season, and stopping after the first stage of the tournament in the 2019/20 season, when the Ukrainian clubs Kyiv-Basket and Dnipro were it’s rivals. By the way, then, two years ago, the Bulgarians lost twice to Kyiv, but beat Dnipro as many times.
In preparation for the qualification of the Champions League this season, "Levski" played a single control match, winning a difficult victory over the club of the second division of the Bulgarian championship "Spartak" from Pleven - 78:77. Defender Hristo Zakhariev did not play in this match due to his injury, but playmaker Asen Velikov came on the court for the first time in a year and a half after the injury.
"We don't know much about today's “Levski”, about its players condition, although in general it is a team with a lot of experience in various competitions." - said the head coach of "Prometey" Ronen Ginzburg on the day before the match between his team and the champion of Bulgaria. - This lack of information about the opponent, of course, created some difficulties for us in preparing for the match. We will see if it is worth making any changes in the game already during the match
The fact that "Levski" will play at home is an additional trump card of the opponent, but I am confident in the capabilities of my team. We have significantly improved the situation with injured players. Now all the guys are preparing for the match, not all of them will get enough playing time, but each of them is ready to contribute to the successful performance of the team. "
The winner of the match "Levski Lukoil" - "Prometey" of the qualification will meet with the Czech "Opava" in the semifinals. Due to the teamwork of its performers, Ronen Ginzburg conciders the Czech team as one of the favorites of the Bulgarian bubble, along with the French "Le Mans" and the Russian "Parma", which will play in the second quarterfinal match of the bubble with the Israeli "Hapoel" from Eilat.
The confrontation between Levski Lukoil and Prometey will take place on September 14 at 5 p.m. It will be possible to follow its course on the XSPORT TV channel and on the official website of our club.
