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The matches between Vilnius Rytas and Utena Juventus have become a true classic of Lithuanian basketball in recent years, and this Saturday the teams will meet again: it will be the match of the 10th round of the Lithuanian Central Basketball League ( Betsafe-LKL).
The two teams will meet each other in different moods: the Vilnius club finally stopped the series of four failures in all tournaments in the middle of the week, and the Juventus team could not even train for a while, the team was hit by a coronavirus.
Club members have had to spend a lot of time in self-isolation and are full of workouts earlier this week.
As one of the Utena team leaders told LKL.lt Vytautas ŠulskisDuring the week of their return, the coaches did not put too much pressure on their players and allowed them to gradually return to their normal pace.
“The coaches do not give very heavy loads, they are mostly supervised by physical preparation coaches, we have been practicing sports with the whole team since Monday. Everything is going slowly, slowly, so far everything looks good, let’s see how it will be.
It’s definitely not easy, because it’s not very ideal to exercise for ten days at home, but you still have to push yourself, because if you don’t play sports, it would be hard to come back, but you really feel more out of breath. “
The last time Utena’s team played on the parquet was on October 24, when Panevėžys “Lietkabelius” 76:78 in their arena in a beautiful match.
It will be three weeks since that game and the meeting with Rytas, so V. Šulskis did not dare to predict what his team would be like on the pitch after such a break.
“We had to prepare for a week, we play sports, we play, it doesn’t seem like we look too bad, but time will tell. The training process and matches are two completely different things, I don’t even know what to predict and what to expect, we’ll just go to the field and we will try to play, make our combinations and improve the game, ”said the player, LKL.
This will be the second battle between the teams this season. It was these two teams that opened the LKL season in mid-September, but then there was not much intrigue, without several important rotating players, Juventus, who played in the capital and then lost 77: 106.
According to V.Šulskis, then the “Rytas” team looked really solid, but lately their form doesn’t seem so strong anymore.
“Rytas” then had all the new players, there was a whole team, they really got involved, the arena was full of people, I think that added motivation too.
They really played very hard, it looked very good, it seemed that they were really going to achieve something impressive this season, but then everything started to fall apart ”, considered the interlocutor.
It is true that after a difficult stage, the people of Vilnius are beginning to recover: an important victory was achieved in the FIBA Champions League in the middle of the week, and Martynas Echodas, who returned to qualifying after injury, and newcomer Maurice Ndouras made a significant contribution.
When asked about his importance to the Vilnius team, V.Šulskis praised the senior “Rytas”, but also did not underestimate his team’s top-line basketball players: Julius Jucikas and Mindaugas Kupšas.
“Echod is a very high level center at the Lithuanian level, Ndour has also shown to play at a high level, it is a really dangerous front line, but our centers are not little people who are easy to pressure, so let’s hope they represent them. “LKL said. in he said.
It will also be the first match in Utena, which will take place absolutely without spectators. V.Šulskis is open – the people of Utena will definitely lack the support of the noisy arena.
“It’s definitely going to have some impact, because everyone still knows that the Utena Arena fans are passionate, they really support their team, they add, there is that sixth player, they will definitely miss them.
Of course, it is a shame that this is the situation, but we all understand that and we will not try to find any excuses. We will go, we will fight and we will try to win ”, he concluded.
However, Betsafe experts predict the victory of Vilnius residents at this meeting: their chances are equal to more than 69 percent.
Another interesting meeting will take place on Saturday: Klaipėda “Neptūnas” will host one of the “hottest” teams in the league in their stadium, Pasvalys’ Milk Stars, who have won three wins in a row.
It will be possible to watch the meeting broadcast starting at 5 pm on LKL.lt, and bettors are guessing that Pasvalys’ team’s winning series has started to four – their chances of winning are almost 60 percent.
Another match will be played on Sunday: the Kaunas Žalgiris and Prienai CBet teams will meet in the match from January.
The Žalgiris Arena meeting will be broadcast live on BTV and LKL.lt television starting at 5 pm. The obvious favorites here, according to Betsafe-LKL experts, are the national champions: Kaunas has a 92 percent chance of winning the match.
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