BC "Filou Oostende" (Belgium) - BC "Prometey" (Ukraine). February 10. 21:00. Champions League. Second group round. Group "K". Missed match of the 1st round. Oostende (Belgium). Versley Doom. Broadcast - prometeybc.com, Dmart TV, Youtube.com/FIBA

In the second group stage of the Champions League due to quarantine restrictions only in group "L" all matches of the first round were played in time. The quartet with the participation of our "Prometey" postponed two matches of the current champion of Ukraine. The first of them, in the starting round, will be played tomorrow, on February 10. In the Belgian city of Oostende, located on the North Sea coast, Ronen Ginzburg's team will meet with the club of the same name.

Oostende is the most titled club in Belgium. The team won the title of the champion of their country 21 times (!) and became the winner of the Belgian Cup only 2 times less. For 37 years, Oostende has been participating in European Cups almost constantly, and the 2001/2002 season was marked by their performance in the Euroleague. Since 2016, the opponent of "Prometey" is a permanent participant in the Champions League, although beyond the quarterfinals of the tournament, which is also undoubtedly a great achievement, the team did not pass. The main European Cup achievements of the Belgians fall on the FIBA European Cup: the semifinals of the 2016/2017 season and the quarterfinals - two years later.

This season, Oostende, like Prometey, is undefeated in the domestic championship, beating their rivals in 15 matches. The performances of rivals in the Champions League are identical. Like "Prometey", "Oostende" with 3 victories in 6 matches took third place in their group (rivals of the Belgians were Turkish "Tofazh", French "Strasbourg" and Estonian "Kalev"). Like Ronen Ginzburg's team, Oostende lost the first match of the play-in round (72:87 to Bosnian Igokea), then leveled the score at home (85:67) and won the decisive match away (83:77).

This ended the similarity of the teams' performances in the tournament. The team of 46-year-old Croatian coach Dario Georgija started the Top 16 tournament with two away defeats. At first, Oostende lost to Malaga’s Unicaja (59:75), and then to Cluj, Romania (76:85). Georgia's colleague Ronen Ginzburg said that in Spain, "Oostende" relied on tough defense. We can say that the team acted quite well in defense, but this can not be said about their actions in the attack, which was evidenced by only 59 points. Oostende has significantly improved their attacking actions in Cluj. In the first quarter of the match, the Belgians repeatedly successfully played pick-n-rolles, which were usually completed by a tall (213 cm) center from Ghana Amida Brima. Guards Phil Booth - only 5 assists in the match, Dusan Djordjevic and Levi Randolph – 4 each, successfully assisted him. The 29-year-old American Levi Randolph, a graduate of the University of Alabama, scored 20 points against "Cluj", confirming that he is the best shooter of the team. Three quarters the preference could not be given to any of the rivals and only in the final ten minutes, "Cluj" established their dominance, thanks to which they managed to win.

"You shouldn't pay attention to Oostende's start in the group stage," said Ronen Ginzburg. "There can be no weak teams in the top 16 of the Champions League. Oostende is also a team of a high-level. Even more, we play against Belgians only one day after our confrontation with Unicaja - I don't know if there were any cases of such a super-tight game schedule in the tournament before. "

  
Obviously, "Oostende" has a clear advantage over "Prometey" in that the club had more than a day to rest and prepare for the upcoming match than the champion of Ukraine. However, all Prometey fans believe that our favorite team will cope with the next difficulties and continue their winning streak in the top 16 of the tournament! The match between Ostend and Prometheus will be available on February 10, at 9 pm on our club website, FIBA YouTube channels and Dmart TV.