SASSARI (Basketball Champions League) – On Monday, the highly-popular on social media Group E participants Dinamo Sassari wrapped-up the promotional campaign they run for their Basketball Champions League season tickets using the hash-tag #ExperienceGreatness. On Tuesday, the Sardinia team play their opening game in the competition as they host reigning Polish champions Stelmet Zielona Gora.

“It will be both a beautiful and tough game, I am convinced that fans who come to the arena will witness a great encounter against a very physical team which has a perfect blend of European and American players,” Dinamo Federico Pasquini said at a press conference on Monday.

"Zielona Gora arrived on Sardinia already on Sunday to have two full days to prepare the game here." - Federico Pasquini

“[Zielona Gora] is a team with depth, they have in effect a 10-player rotation. This will be the first truly important game for them since the Polish Supercup, because they won two easy games in the Polish league.

“We have to pay attention to their guards, James Florence was Cibona’s top scorer last year while Lukas Koszarek we already know from when he played in Italy with Caserta, without forgetting about Thomas Kelati or center Julian Vaughn. We have to recover the kind of defensive intensity we showed during our best stretches against Brescia.”

Dinamo are coming off a superb 96-73 win over Brescia at home in Italian Serie A league action behind great displays by their own important players. Brian Sacchetti had a career-high nine assists, eight rebounds and seven points in a performance rated at 25, while Dusko Savanovic top-scored with 19 points.

"Besiktas is right now the team that plays the best basketball, but all eight are teams of a high level. It is an important competition and it will be fundamental to approach it well right from Tuesday’s game." -  Federico Pasquini

It is well-known that PalaSerradimigni arena often resembles an impregnable fortress to any team that travels to the Italian island. Besides, the Regular Season comprises of 14 games and there should be plenty of time to make up for an early slip-up.

But the way Zielona Gora have prepared the Basketball Champions League opener and the high-level of competitiveness Dinamo anticipate in Group E has made the Italian team consider the Tuesday clash as decisive in their campaign.

“Zielona Gora has placed the Basketball Champions League in the centre of their project,” Pasquini explained. “They are putting the European competition so high on their list of goals for the season, to the extent that they did not play in the Polish league this weekend and arrived on Sardinia already on Sunday to have two full days to prepare the game here.”

“I think that our group is one of the most interesting because it includes teams with history and tradition and the teams that were added to the competition last (Dinamo, Zielona Gora, AEK, Partizan).

“Besiktas is right now the team that plays the best basketball, but all eight are teams of a high level. I think it is an important competition and it will be fundamental to approach it well right from Tuesday’s game.”