BC Hapoel Jerusalem (Israel) - BC Prometey (Ukraine). January 12. 21:00. Champions League. Play-in round, 1st match. Jerusalem. Pais Arena. Broadcast - XSport, prometeybc.com, Dmart TV, Youtube.com/FIBA

Tomorrow, on January 12, Prometey will open a new chapter in its European Cup history. After the champion of Ukraine overcame the group round of the Champions League, they will play in the play-in with the Israeli club Hapoel from Jerusalem. This round includes a series of up to two victories, with Hapoel having the advantage of their own court as second team of their group.

Hapoel is a six-time Israeli Cup winner, a club with a rich history of performances in the Euro arena. It began in 1990 with the participation in the Korac Cup, and in 2004 the rival of Prometey became the winner of the ULEB Cup. This year's season for Hapoel is the fourth in a row in the Champions League. In the first two (2018/2019 and 2019/2020) the team reached the quarterfinals of the tournament, but both times on their tournament path were Spanish clubs - "Tenerife" and "Burgos".

This season's group tournament, the Israelis, like Prometey, started with two home defeats. First, the team lost two points to the Turkish "Pinar Karsiaka", and then five - to the Spanish "Manresa". Hapoel has significantly improved its tournament performance in the second round. Prometey head coach Ronen Ginzburg said: "Hapoel started the season very mediocre. However, the team strengthened the line-up and started playing much stronger. In particular, our rival last three matches in Champions league very well. For instance, in their asserts a very high-quality away match against Turkish Karsiyaka.

The victory in overtime in the away match over Manresa has brought Hapoel in the second place in the group. The team's latest acquisitions are Nigerian center John Egbunu (211 cm) and one of the main young talents of Israeli basketball, Noam Dovrat. Egbun's last club was Italian Varese, and the young point-guard’s was Maccabi (Rishon LeZion). The hegemon of Israeli basketball, Maccabi (Tel Aviv), also claimed Dovrat, but the young man made his choice in favor of Hapoel.

Egbun and Dovrat complemented the balanced line-up of Prometey's rivals. "Hapoel has a set of quality performers in both the front line and in the back one. In the Champions League, we have not met with a team of this style of play yet. "Hapoel is rather like us: the team wants to play speed basketball as well," said Ronen Ginzburg.

The balance of the Israeli championship leader is provided by guards Retin Obasohan, Jallen Adams, Kaiser Gates, Sean Kilpatrick, Adam Ariel, third number Willy Workman, power forward Suleiman Braimo, center Itai Segev. In Hapoel's game a lot depends on the back line performers Obasohan and Allen. The player with Belgian and Nigerian passports Retin Obasohan - the main shooter of the team and its best assistant, boldly takes over the game, breaking into the three-second zone. American Adams also has a good and stable throw. Nigerian Suleiman Braimo is the second shooter after Obasohan and the first Hapoel rebounder. The main center, local player, Itai Segev is not effective, but like Braimo, he works well in the "paint" due to his athleticism. Kaiser Gates specializes in defensive actions and neutralizing rival leaders. Kaiser's compatriots Sean Kilpatrick and Willy Workman are useful to the team in their own way: Sean has proved in Europe to be a good player, thanks to his good sniper skills; Willy reminds in style DJ Stephens and Oleksandr Belikov in terms of ability to find the shortest paths to the opponent's ring.

The individual qualities of the performers are naturally combined with Hapoel's team game. The Israelis set difficult tasks for any of their opponents in all phases of the game. Prometey is expecting an extremely difficult match in Jerusalem, and Ronen Ginzburg emphasizes this, who is worried about the team not to lose the game rhythm:

"After the match with Dnipro in the Superleague, we had a two-week break. If before that we mostly played three times a week, now we have no playing practice. I worry a lot that our players will go to the match with Hapoel relaxed. "We will face a serious test, especially since Hapoel will be strongly supported by their fans."

In turn, the vast majority of Prometey fans will be able to worry about their favorites only at the TV screens and monitors. However, we all hope that our team will cope with all the difficulties and return home in a good mood, leading 1: 0 in the series.

The first match between Hapoel and Prometey in the Champions League play-in can be followed on January 12, from 21:00 on XSport, our club website, FIBA YouTube and Dmart TV.