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Kuban lost nine of their last ten head-to-head clashes against Zvezda, but traditions are there to be broken and the preconditions for that today are more than great. In the last days of 2015, Kuban ended their negative tradition of 19 defeats in the last 20 games against Dinamo from Volgograd by defeating them 33-31. Under impression from this win and with much bigger confidence they are awaiting today's game against Zvezda who are nowhere near their quality from previous seasons. With the fact that they started this season without four important players in the rotation, Zvezda had problems with injured players throughout the season, and currently injured are four of them, mostly younger players (Zakordonskaja, Arefyeva, Egorova, Amelchenko), while standard middle-back Potapenko ended the season early in late November due to pregnancy. With reduced roster, Zvezda lost to favored teams at the end of 2015, first to Rostov (23-30), than to Lada (29-40). Kuban don't have a quality player width like these two teams, but the 7-8 crucial players are experienced and some of them previously played for Russia's best teams. Home team's goalkeeper Basarab could have a crucial role today, she played for Zvezda last year, started the season for Rostov, but since she was the third option there, she moved to Krasnodar over the season and became one of Kuban's best players. Their last two games confirm that she is in great form, against Atrakhanochka and Dinamo and she had 14 saves in each game. Handicap on Kuban (+1.5) is widely available online and is worth at least the set stake.