Zenit beat Barcelona without their captain. The first sensation of the Euroleague playoffs.

Zenit beat Barcelona without their captain. The first sensation of the Euroleague playoffs.

A few days before the first game of the Euroleague quarterfinal series with Barcelona, ​​the club from St. Petersburg lost its captain. Mateusz Ponitka slipped unsuccessfully in the already decisive VTB United League match against Nizhny Novgorod and was eliminated before the end of the season. The Polish forward is one of the three key players in Javier Pascual's system alongside Kevin Pangos and Will Thomas. It seemed that without Ponitka, the blue-white-blue are doomed in the series with the main mostbet favorite of the season. But "Zenith" not only gave battle to the Catalans, but also managed to outplay Mirotic and company. Let's highlight five factors of such an important guest victory of the Russian club.