2015 CEV DenizBank Champions League
Perugia wins first leg
PlayOffs 6
Lokomotiv Novosibirsk (RUS) – Asseco Resovia Rzeszow (POL) 1-3 (25-20, 21-25, 27-29, 17-25)
Sir Safety Perugia (ITA) – PGE Skra Belchatow (POL) 3-2 (25-17, 20-25, 25-23, 23-25, 16-14)
Zenit Kazan (RUS) – Halkbank Ankara (TUR) 3-0 (25-19, 25-18, 25-17)
SIR SAFETY PERUGIA – PGE SKRA BELCHATOW 3-2 (25-17, 20-25, 25-23, 23-25, 16-14)
SIR SAFETY PERUGIA: Buti 5, Fromm 24, Paolucci, De Cecco 4, Giovi (L), Beretta 7, Vujevic 5, Atanasijevic 32, Sunder, Maruotti. DNP Barone, Fanuli. Coach. Grbic.
PGE SKRA BELCHATOW: Lisinac 11, Wlazly 23, Klos 7, Conte 16, Wrona 5, Uriarte 5, Wlodarczyk, Brdjovic, Tille (L), Marechal 4. DNP Piechocki. Coach. Falasca.
The Block Devils overcame the Polish champions, hot favourite to go through, after five exhausting sets. The hosts took some risks and fought hard from start to finish. They also made some mistakes but their competitive spirit never died, and in the end a Fromm ace made the crowd go wild. The team could have been feeling hard done when they let escape the fourth set but they came back in the tie-break with the eye of the tiger. Atanasijevic was superb, he scored 32. Fromm had a big one too with 24 points coming from an unbelievable 68% in attack. The Italians will now have to play in front of a 13.000 crowd next week to try to make the breakthrough.
Goran Vujevic (Sir Safety Perugia): “That was a crucial win because they were the favourite. But we tried to do well from the start. We’re extremely satisfied with this performance, but we know next Wednesday will be a different game. We’ll have to start from scratch and try to do as well as today”.
Miguel Angel Falasca (coach PGE Skra Belchatow): “It’s been a tough game, unfortunately we lost the first set without playing, and that has probably influenced the rest of the game. Now we’ll focus on the return leg to try to turn things around”.
PlayOffs 6 return leg
Wednesday March 11 at 6pm
PGE Skra Belchatow (POL) – Sir Safety Perugia (ITA)
(Cambre-Altiparmak)
2015 CEV Challenge Cup
CRVENA ZVEZDA BEOGRAD – CMC RAVENNA 3-2 (25-18, 25-23, 22-25, 17-25, 17-15)
CRVENA ZVEZDA BEOGRAD: Okolic 9, Jevtic (L), Stefanovic, Stoilovic 20, Gmitrovic 23, Koprivica 20, Milutinovic 7, Kecman, Blagojevic 1, Buculjevic 4. DNP Nejic, Martinovic. Coach. Kobiljski.
CMC RAVENNA: Mengozzi 6, Ricci 17, Cavanna 1, Zappoli Guarienti, Jeliazkov 8, Koumentakis 9, Goi (L), Buiatti Zanatta 4, Bari (L), Mckibbin 2, Cebulj 26. DNP Gabriele. Coach. Kantor.
Ravenna lost by the minimum margin in the Challenge Cup quarter-final first leg in Belgrade. In order to go through, Ravenna will now have to win 3-0 or 3-1 next Wednesday. If they were to win it 3-2, there would be a golden set to decide the tie. The main men for Ravenna on the night were the young Ricci and the Slovenian Cebulj.
Giuseppe Cormio (D.G. CMC Ravenna): “We have been very negative in the first two sets, we basically started to play from the third even if we had a chance to go 24-23 up in the second. Then, the tie-break would have finished 15-13 for us if the ref had whistled a clear foul. We got nervous and lost it. We would have had to win 3-1 or 3-0 the return leg anyway. I want to praise Fabio Ricci who really had a great game”.
Quarter-final return leg
Wednesday March 11 at 8.30pm
CMC Ravenna – Crvena Zvezda Beograd (SRB)
(Vasko-Visan)
2015 CEV Cup
Trentino in the Challenge round
Challenge Round first leg
Thursday March 5 at 8.30pm
Energy T.I. Diatec Trentino (ITA) – Knack Roeselare (BEL)
(Marin-Senyurt)
