The current European champions travel to Moscow to face Khimki in their second outing in the Top 16 with the aim of making some progress in the extremely close group F, where the Whites are a win away from the top of the group, with the Russians joint-leaders. The game will close out the first round of this stage. It will also mark the start of a demanding final stretch of games for the Whites, with six of the final eight games to be played away from home.

The Whites go into the game in Moscow with a lot of enthusiasm and the intention of demonstrating that they can win on any court in Europe, although Khimki's court is one of the few places where they have been unable to taste victory. They face an opponent that they already know from the Regular Season and whose previous games this season have not gone well. However, a win today would be very important for their interests ahead of the second round. In turn, the Russians go into the game following two successive defeats against Olmpiacos (Euroleague) and CSKA Moscow (VTB League). The last one was a 85-96 home loss.

TWO OF THE BEST OFFENSES IN THE COMPETITION GO HEAD TO HEAD.
The Whites do not want to make the same mistakes and they know the path to take in order to get what would be their fourth win in the Top 16 and the first away. Rebounds will be essential against an opponent that is very powerful inside the area. Despite the injury of Paul Davis, the Russians have very large inside players such as Augustine, Todorovic and Sokolov, and strong forwards, such as Honeycutt (second leading rebounder in the side) or Monia. In their last away trip to the court of Kurtinaitis' men, the Whites conceded 15 offensive rebounds and had 17 ball losses, another of the key aspects they need to control.

Search for balance
If Real Madrid keep Khimki to under 80 points, they will have a much greater possibility of achieving their aim. Rice and Shved, in addition to the aforementioned Augustine, are their key benchmarks in attack, however the Russians are also going through a great defensive spell. They are the side with the most steals (8.6 ball steals per game) and the most intimidating team (5 blocks) in the Top 16. Therefore, this will be another significant test for Real Madrid's offense, which is almost unstoppable when on top form as they have shown in their last two La Liga games, averaging 99.5 points. We have another great game ahead of us.