USK Praha basketball players are waiting for the EL Schiem quarterfinals
Updates: 18.03.2022 01:03
Released: 18.03.2022, 01:03
Prague – USK Prague basketball players are waiting for a key match of the whole season. At the home field, they will challenge the Italian Schio in the first third quarterfinals of the European League. In case of victory, the Czech champions will secure promotion to the Final Four after three years, otherwise they will end. The winner of the duel will face Fenerbahce Istanbul in the semifinals. The match will start in the Královka hall at 18:00.
Coach Natálie Hejková’s charges were originally to face Sopron in the elimination phase. However, after the expulsion of the Russian teams of Ekaterinburg and Dynamo Kursk due to Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine, they moved up the table in the basic group A and Schio came out on them as a modified spider as the third team of group B.
In the first duel in front of its spectators, USK erased the twelve-point short in the final five-minute period and won 72:70. However, in Tuesday’s retaliation on the opponent’s field, the Prague women, who are bothered by a number of absences and the related narrow rotation of the players, lost 56:69.
USK is aiming for the fifth participation in the Final Four in history and the first in three years. The year before, the competition was terminated prematurely due to the coronavirus pandemic, last year the Czech champions dropped out in the basic group. They achieved the greatest success in the competition seven years ago, when they won the European League at home.