The London Lions begin their first ever Basketball Champions League campaign on Tuesday as they face off against Neptunas Klaipeda in Bulgaria.

The Lions face a difficult task after Lithuanian outfit Neptunas Klaipeda emerged from a pool of possible opponents that also included Groningen, Anwil Wloclawek and Fribourg Olympic.

Neptunas finished in a respectable fourth in the Lithuanian League, but were eliminated in the group stage of the BCL having a 6-8 record.

If the London side do progress, they will face off against either Balkan Botevgrad or Tsoki-Minsk for a place in the BCL group stages, where the reward is a group consisting of AEK Athens (GRE), Brose Bamberg (GER), Cholet (FRA), Fortitudo Bologna ( ITA), Hapoel Holon (ISR), Pinar Karsiyaka (TUR) and Bilbao (ESP).

The Lions have also given themselves the best chance this season by re-signing key players like British Basketball League MVP Justin Robinson and captain Joe lkhinmwin for the eighth term at the club.

New signings such as Byron Mullens, Kevin Ware and DeAndre Liggins will also give the BCL debutants the best chance of qualifying.

Team news:

London Lions: Robinson was left out of the pre-season game against Bakken Bears as a pre-caution, but is available, only Jules Dang-Akodo is injured for the Lions.

Neptunas Klaipedas: The Lithuanian side do not have any injuries having not played a game since the 4th February (no reported pre-season games)

Predicted Lineups

London Lions:

(C) Byron Mullens, (PF) Kervin Bristol, (SF) DeAndre Liggins, (SG) Kevin Ware, (PG) Jules Dang-Akodo

Neptunas Klaipeda:

(C) Benas Griciunas, (PF) Kladias Metrikis,  (SF) G.Stankevicius, (SG) Aidas Einikis, (PG) Matas Jogela

Form guide:

Because Neptunas have not played any pre-season games, it is difficult to judge them - in comparison to the London Lions who have played three.

The Lions lost two pre-season games, one to B.C Oostende and one to Bakken Bears, but they did beat B.C. Oostende in their second game against the Belgian side quite with a convincing performance.

Neptunas Klaipeda ended last season badly having lost three of their last five games in the regular season. 

In contrast London Lions ended the season well, winning three out of the last five regular season games.

Who are Neptunas?

Basketball club Neptunas, commonly known as Neptunas Klaipeda, is a Lithuanian professional basketball team in Klaipeda, Lithuania.

The club participates in the Lithuanian Basketball League and internationally in the Basketball Champions League.

They finished last season 6th in the seedings with a 6-8 record.

Neptunas Klaipeda Ones to Watch:

Ethan Jaiswal (@EJBBL on Twitter), BBL Analyst, gave us his insight on who the danger men for the Lithuanians are:

Martynas Mazeika:
35 Y.O. 6'3 SG/PG | Played Euroleague, EuroCup and BCL previously.

Averaged 43% from 3PT in the EuroCup Quals last year.
Led team in scoring in their opening 20/21 LKL game last Friday 19PTS in 29 mins.
Mid-range game is strong, watch for his step-backs.

Key to this match-up:

Lions must chase Mazeika off 3PT line / take ball out of his hands as much as possible, they should make use of their athletes to exploit this veteran's slower legs when on offence.

A player who will show up in big moments, must be aware of him at all times.

Simas Galdikas:
33 Y.O. 6'8 C/PF | Played Euroleague, EuroCup and BCL previously.

Started 13 of Neptunas' 14 19/20 BCL games, playing close to 19 mins a game. Also shot 65% from the floor that season.

16PTS and 5REB in Neptunas' opening LKL game in only 13 minutes. A problem around the basket, takes high % shots and makes them consistently.

Key to this match-up:

The Lions' bigs should be ready to run the floor, another player who's athleticism should be capitalised on.

Lions must crash the boards when he is in the game, Galdikas will be looking for offensive boards, he doesn't shoot many shots and these types of situations are where he will be looking to score.

Žygimantas Janavičius

31 Y.O. 6'3 PG | Played Euroleague, EuroCup and BCL previously.

Neptunas' starting PG in the 19/20 season, Janavičius is the team's floor general: he finds the open man (6.4AST in the 19/20 BCL season) and controls the pace of the game

Played the second highest number of minutes in Neptunas' opening night 25MINS, expect to see him in the game a lot against Lions.

Key to this match-up:

Janavičius is not a score-first player, Lions should be happy with him shooting from outside as long as it's taking shots away from Neptunas' other threats.

He is historically not the most consistent shooter from deep 29% across all comps in 19/20. Fans should have faith in the Lions' deep backcourt to handle Janavičius.

What Vince Macauley has said:

Speaking to the London Evening Standard, London Lions coach Vince Macauley spoke of his confidence in his side to go and provide a show but also do Britain proud and hopefully qualify.

"We feel well prepared, I believe that we have the tools to give ourselves a chance,” Macaulay told Standard Sport.

“It has been a long time coming, many of us have worked for many years towards this goal. 

“We are not unsure about how hard the task at hand is, we have recruited some very talented players with a motivation for what is ahead, trying to win on the road will be hard but we believe.

“No team has made it into the Champions league proper from our shores.

“In fact, no team has won a competitive match against a European team since the Brighton Bears almost 21 years ago. 

“This is very special for British Basketball and we know many people are supporting us in this quest. 

“We want to show that British Basketball can compete at this level and make this a level we become accustomed to.”

How to Watch

The game will be broadcasted live on the BBC Sport website from 2:30PM (BST).

If you cannot tune in make sure to keep an eye out for VAVEL UK's live text coverage!