AX ARMANI EXCHANGE MILAN (ITALY)

Founded in 1936
Team colors: white, red
Honors: Euroleague (1966, 1987, 1988), Cup of Cups (1971, 1972, 1976), Korac Cup (1985, 1993), Intercontinental Cup (1987), Italian National League (1936-1939, 1950-1954, 1957-1960, 1962, 1965-1967, 1972, 1982, 1985-1987, 1989, 1996, 2014, 2016, 2018), Italian National Cup (1972, 1986, 1987, 1996, 2016, 2017), Italian Supercup (2016, 2018)
Arena: Mediolanum Forum (capacity – 12331)
President: Pantaleo Dell’Orco
Head coach: Ettore Messina
Official website: www.olimpiamilano.com

Where to watch

LIVE: Match! Strana (19:55), Match! Igra (replay at 22:20), EuroLeague TV, matchtv.ru
Text online: EuroLeague website

GAME NOTES

Nemanja Nedovic won the silver medal at the 2016 Olympics playing alongside Khimki point guard Stefan Jovic with the Serbian national team. Nedovic and Jovic also won silver together at the 2014 World Cup.

At the start of his career, Khimki star guard Alexey Shved played under current Milan coach Ettore Messina at CSKA Moscow on and off for three seasons, from 2006 to 2009. They won the EuroLeague title together in 2008 and reached the championship game a year later.

Khimki sharpshooter Dairis Bertans spent the past two seasons with Milan. He was a teammate with several current Milan players.

Vyacheslav Zaytsev and Christian Burns played for Enisey Krasnoyarsk in season 2013/2014.

Janis Timma, Sergey Karasev, Evgeny Valiev, Andrey Desiatnikov and Aaron White played for Zenit St Petersburg in season 2016/2017.

PRE-GAME QUOTES

Rimas Kurtinaitis, Khimki Moscow Region head coach:

“On Monday Milan had a similar game to ours with a team from the bottom of the standings, but they won more confidently and without being nervous. At the moment, they are playing with a good tempo and doing a really good job, even they have injury issues with some guys. I think right now Della Valle is one of the best Italian players and coach Messina found an approach to him as he became one of the main players for the team. Overall, Milan is a very strong team that is the current EuroLeague leader, and it is fully deserved. For sure, we have to pay special attention to Luis Scola, who, despite his age, gives energy and generally fit well into the team. Also, Sergio Rodriguez is one of the leaders. He is hard to stop and always plays effectively. He makes the results for his team. Vlado Micov is playing really well right now. Long story short, we are waiting for a tough team that always plays with discipline, no matter at home or on the road. Each player knows and understands what the coach wants, so it will be a very difficult game”.

Jeremy Evans, Khimki Moscow Region forward:

“It’s gonna be a tough game. We have to play hard and fight, coming out with a win. We play at home and should use it as our advantage. They have a lot of great players, guys I played against, guys who have good reputation, so it won’t be easy for us. We had a messy game on Monday but we will have games like that. We just have to come out, practice, fight and get ready”.