Volleyball Continental Leagues 2017 - 2018 Discussion Thread

[VolleyRuller96 264]

TODAY'S SCHEDULE

THE FINAL, Leg 1
Belogorie - Belgorod - Ziraat Bankasi Ankara - 19:00 CEST

 

 

[VolleyRuller96 264]

YESTERDAY'S RESULTS

THE FINAL, LEG 1
 Belogorie Belgorod 3-0  Ziraat Bankasi Ankara

[VolleyRuller96 264]

Belogorie rout Ziraat Bankasi in first round of #CEVCupM Finals 

Belgorod, Russia, April 3, 2018. Belogorie BELGOROD needed only 68 minutes on Tuesday night to secure a compelling 3-0 home victory (25-13, 25-15, 25-14) in their first matchup with Ziraat Bankasi ANKARA with the title of this year’s CEV Cup – Men at stake. The return match will be taking place next Tuesday, April 10 in the Turkish capital. Belogorie are vying for their first European Cup title since they won the CEV Volleyball Champions League in 2014. 

•    Belogorie BELGOROD provided something to cheer about for some 4,500 fans in attendance at Sports Palace Cosmos. 
•    Ziraat Bankasi ANKARA claimed a small lead only in the early stages of the third set (2-0) before Belogorie stormed to a 3-0 victory. 
•    The coach of Belogorie, Alexander Kosarev, did not have to make any substitutions throughout the match – with the only exception being Roman Danilov who joined the actions just to serve. On the other hand, Ziraat Bankasi changed Bartosz Kurek many times for Vojin Cacic, but to no avail. 
•    Belogorie setter Roman Poroshin passed the ball to Dmitry Muserskiy on every possible occasion – and as a result, Muserskiy top scored in the end with 18 points. Kurek paced Ziraat Bankasi with seven points

 

 

 

Sergey Tetyukhin, team captain of Belogorie BELGOROD: “We had to make amends for the bad matches we had played in the quarterfinals of the Russian national league – we owed this to ourselves and to the fans as well. The Turkish team did not cause us any problems tonight. We played very well in every element of the game, including from the service line. However, I think that the second match will be completely different. They have some very good players; they will be playing at home, in front of their fans, so we have to be ready for that.” 

Joshko Milenkoski, head coach of Ziraat Bankasi ANKARA: “Tonight we played in a very famous sports hall, which is some kind of a ‘hall of fame’ since it has hosted many important matches, including a Champions League final. Belogorie played amazingly well today – and they did so especially with their service and block. They did not give us any chance to play our game. A team including a number of Olympic champions such as Sergey Grankin, Sergey Tetyukhin, Dmitriy Muserskiy and Alexey Obmochaev deserves the victory and they deserve to win the cup as well. However, I still hope that the re-match in Ankara will be different.” 

[VolleyRuller96 264]

ROAD TO KAZAN

 

PLAYOFF 6, 1st LEG

 

 Cucine Lube Civitanova -  Trentino Volley

LIVE STREAM 20:30 CEST http://www.laola1.tv/en-int/livestream/cucine-lube-civitanova-trentino-diatec-len

STARTING LINE-UPS, STATS & LIVESCORE https://www.cev.eu/Competition-Area/MatchPage.aspx?mID=31279&ID=1033

 

Zaksa Kedzierzyn Kozle -  VFB Friedrichshafen

LIVE STREAM 20:30 CEST http://www.laola1.tv/en-int/livestream/2018-04-04-zaksa-kedzierzyn-kozle-vfb-friedrichshafen-len

STARTING LINE-UPS, STATS & LIVESCORE https://www.cev.eu/Competition-Area/MatchPage.aspx?mID=31280&ID=1033

 

SIR Safety Perugia -  Lokomotiv Novosibirsk

LIVE STREAM 20:30 CEST http://www.laola1.tv/en-int/livestream/sir-safety-sicoma-perugia-lokomotiv-novosibirsk-len

STARTING LINE-UPS, STATS & LIVESCORE https://www.cev.eu/Competition-Area/MatchPage.aspx?mID=31278&ID=1033

 

 

 

 

[VolleyRuller96 264]

TODAY'S SCHEDULE

Play-off 6, 1st Leg

 Cucine Lebe Civitanova -  Trentino Diatec 

Zaksa Kedzierzyn Kozle -  VFB FRiedrichshafen
Sir Safety Perugia -  Lokomotiv Novosibirsk

 

The Final, 1st LEG

 

 Bunge Ravenna -  Olypiacos PIraeus

[VolleyRuller96 264]

After two lucky sets for Zaksa, Friedrichshafen gained momentum in the third one and won it

 

Still I hope Zaksa may achieve the biggest success for Polish Volleyball since a few years but they will have to improve their play, otherwise VFB will achieve their 38 and 39th straight win

 

Btw.   player Protopsaltis 

 

Also wow, Perugia leads against Novosibirsk!

[VolleyRuller96 264]

What a comeback for Zaksa  from 7-11 in Tie Break to 15-13   

Now do the same in

 

[VolleyRuller96 264]

ROAD TO KAZAN

 

PLAYOFF 6, 1st LEG

 

 Cucine Lube Civitanova 3-1  Trentino Volley

(25-22 / 23-25 / 25-19 /28-26)
 

    It was the fifth match featuring these two teams in the CEV Volleyball Champions League. They previously crossed their paths in the 2009 and 2016 semi-finals and in the Playoffs 6 of the 2012 edition as well. 
•    TRENTINO Diatec line-up included the Estonian opposite Renee Teppan, as Luca Vettori suffered an injury just at the end of the warm up.
•    The home team immediately took control of the operations in the opening set, where they claimed a 22-18 lead thanks to services of Dragan Stankovic (six points with 67% of efficiency and two aces) and Micah Christenson, to seal a 25-22 win. 
•    TRENTINO Diatec got back on track in the second set and were able to claim it 25-23 after a great serve of Simone Giannelli, that allowed Teppan to easily spike the ball to seal the final score. 
•    CIVITANOVA set the pace from start to end of the third set (25-19), while in the fourth they won a very physical fight, with Osmany Juantorena sealing a 28-26 win for the home side with an ace.
•    Juantorena was the best scorer of the match with 19 points (16/30 in attack). Tsvetan Sokolov added 18, while Filippo Lanza scored 18 times for the visitors. 
•    For Cucine Lube CIVITANOVA this is the second win out of five CEV Champions League matches against TRENTINO Diatec this far. 
•    Cucine Lube CIVITANOVA are now only two sets away from securing their third Final Four appearance in a row after winning bronze in 2016 as well as in 2017.

 

 Zaksa Kedzierzyn Kozle 3-2  VFB Friedrichshafen

(25-23 / 25-21 / 22-25 / 22-25 / 15-12)

 

    The hosts used their service to set the pace in the early stages of the first set (4-1, 8-5) before the visitors somehow woke up after the technical break with their Greek outside hitter Athanasios Protopsaltis helping tie the score at 8-all. It was a very close race up until the end with many long rallies before Mateusz Bieniek sealed a 25-23 win for Zaksa. 
•    Zaksa set the tempo of the game also in the second set but a German lead at 13-10 prompted a time-out by the coach of the home side, Andrea Gardini. The hosts responded well as they made it 13-13 and edged ahead at 15-14 with an ace of Maurice Torres. Sam Deroo delivered a truly outstanding performance at this stage and after claiming a four-point advantage at 23-19, Zaksa closed the set out at 25-21. 
•    The visitors played a much better game in the third set leading 5-3 and 8-6 before Zaksa levelled the count at 9-9. Such a close race continued up to 12-all before the Germans scored four points in a row. Two straight mistakes made by Lukasz Wisniewski moved the score to 19-15 for the Häfler and despite some errors towards the end of the set, the visitors sealed a 25-22 win. 
•    VfB setter Simon Tischer found the right timing and chemistry with Protopsaltis and David Sossenheimer to shape up an 8-5 lead for the Germans at the first technical timeout of the fourth set. The fourth set was an intense battle with Zaksa coming back from 8-12 to 14-15. However, after that, the hosts somehow ran out of fuel and VfB scored four times in a row to get the advantage they needed to go for the tiebreak (25-22). 
•    The final set seemed to run according to the visitors’ plan as Protopsaltis scored repeatedly and a missed attack by Rafal Buszek made it 11-7 for the Häfler. At this stage, the reigning Polish national champions showed their character and fighting spirit with 2,000 fans rooting loudly for them as Buszek levelled the count at 11-all. An ace by Buszek moved the score to 13-11 and Deroo’s attack sealed a dramatic win for Zaksa at 15-13. 

 

 

SIR Safety Perugia 3-1  Lokomotiv Novosibirsk

 

(24-26 / 25-15 / 25-19 / 25-21)

 

 

    Lokomotiv came back from 22-24 in the first set and the Russians sealed a 26-24 win with four straight points. 
•    PERUGIA responded by dominating the second set (25-15) where they recorded three aces and four blocks. 
•    The third set was a much closer affair with the hosts prevailing courtesy of their higher success rate in attack (46 vs. 36%).
•    The fans in attendance erupted in euphoria after Marko Podrascanin sealed a 3-1 win for the home side at the end of the fourth set. 
•    Aleksandar Atanasijevic top scored in the match with 21 points.  

 

 

 

 

[VolleyRuller96 264]

YESTERDAY'S RESULTS

Play-off 6, 1st Leg

 Cucine Lube Civitanova 3-1  Trentino Diatec

 Zaksa Kedzierzyn Kozle 3-2  VFB Friedrichshafen
SIR Safety Perugia 3-1  Lokomotiv Novosibirsk

 

THE FINAL,1st LEG

 Bunge Ravenna 3-1  Olympiacos Piraeus

[VolleyRuller96 264]

Bunge RAVENNA claim home win in #CEVChallengeCupM final stage 

 

 

Luxembourg, April 4, 2018. Bunge RAVENNA claimed an important victory in the first matchup from the final phase of the #CEVChallengeCupM. The Italians took a 3-1 win over their opponents from Olympiacos PIRAEUS. However, a re-match will define who the winners of the 2018 CEV Volleyball Challenge Cup – Men will be, as the away game will take place on April 11.  In this first match, which lasted 131 min., both teams showed a real will to win, as the spectators in Ravenna enjoyed some high-class Volleyball.

Bunge RAVENNA (ITA) vs. Olympiacos PIRAEUS (GRE) 3-1 (26-24, 23-25, 25-20, 25-23)

•    Bunge RAVENNA are playing in the final stage of a European competition after 21 years. Back in 1997, the same club (at that time known as Porto Area) won in Geneva the CEV Cup beating the Turkish club of Netas ISTANBUL. On the other hand,  Olympiacos PIRAEUS have had the opportunity to perform in the final stage of a European competition in more recent times - in 2005 they won in Pireaus the Top Teams Cup, playing against the Dutch side of Ortec ROTTERDAM Nesselande. Again in Piraeus, but in 1992, Ravenna and Olympiacos fought in the Champions Cup final and Messaggero RAVENNA won the title by 3-0.
•    In the first set, both teams showed a very good game. Bunge RAVENNA and Olympiacos PIRAEUS  were closely “following” each other in the score. Thanks to an ace made by Cristian Poglajen, RAVENNA opened the match in their favour. Paul Buchegger from the hosts scored six points (55% of success rate), while Mikko Oivanen from the guests responded with six points (40%) as well.
•    In the second set Olympiacos PIRAEUS rushed to 5-2 and the Greek team managed to keep the advantage for the remainder of the set. Georgios Petreas made a great block and put an end to this part of the match, making the score equal. Special mention for Todor Aleksiev who scored five points in this section of the game.
•    Bunge RAVENNA started slowly in the third set, but thanks to the great cooperation of Buchegger and Nicolas Marechal the team recovered and took the lead (11-9 and then 19-15). Marechal was “on fire” with 75% of success rate in attack. Krasimir Georgiev also helped by scoring four points.

 

•    Bunge RAVENNA won the fourth set, but the teams were constantly exchanging the lead - Olympiacos PIRAEUS were leading at 4-1, but then Bunge’s players responded at 8-7. The Greeks reacted to edge ahead at 15-11, but RAVENNA wouldn’t let things slip away from their hands (good play by Santiago Orduna at 19-17). The visitors  fought until the very end of this part (20-22), but Paul Buchegger and Enrico Diamantini accepted the challenge and showed their best. Diamantini shone with an ace at 23-22 and Buchegger closed the game cashing the second match point for the Italians.