Exiting the Champions League like this, after a wonderful first trip to the top European volleyball competition, certainly hurts for Allianz Milano, but president Lucio Fusaro’s club and coach Roberto Piazza’s team demonstrated yesterday on the Busto Arsizio court that they are capable of fighting and suffering against everyone until the very end. The bitterness over the missed quarter-final of the continental competition against Halkbank Ankara in the golden set, by two points, is thus linked to the awareness of the values of a team expected on Sunday at 6pm in the SuperLega Credem Banca.
Last of the regular season with the return to the Allianz Cloud for the match against Valsa Group Modena which will define the play off ranking. It will also be a day to celebrate a champion of the caliber of Matteo Piano after eight seasons as captain and leader of Milan. Here are the voices collected at the end of yesterday’s match against the Turkish team, starting with that of president Lucio Fusaro. A wonderful Champions League adventure has come to an end. The team reached the golden set, unfortunately it wasn’t enough.
“The more I think about it, the more I regret that set we lost 33-31 in the first leg. If we had won it thanks to the opportunities we had, perhaps we would not have been here this evening to play the golden set. However this is our sport. The regret, if you want, is that we played a good match, we played well and when you lose, fifteen to thirteen the last points, it is clear that the values are very close, but this is volleyball. I feel very sorry for the guys. I really like the coach, because they had prepared and put in a wonderful performance against a team that in all respects is very strong. A team always protagonists of the Turkish championship and made up of great champions. Too bad, that’s how it went. I’m so sorry for the public and the players, because they cared about us, we’ll all stay there, but this is sport.”
The president’s thoughts then turn to the match on Sunday 2 March against Modena.
“It will be an important match to define the play-off ranking, a good day of volleyball. Let’s all play at 6pm to avoid, as they once said, any type of calculation. There are teams that will play to avoid relegation and others, like ours, that are playing for fifth or sixth place. Let’s see how things will go. There is one thing for sure, and that is that in the quarter-final we will find Lube, Piacenza or Verona, three teams with which we won one of the two matches in the championship. So I would say that it is still a very open championship for everyone. Sunday, moreover, is the day on which we would like to celebrate our captain, Matteo PIano, in a worthy way. There is already a full house of his friends, important figures from the world of culture, art, sport and politics. They come because Matteo Piano is a character beyond what he has done and does on the volleyball court” concludes president Fusaro.
Coach Roberto Piazza obviously also has some regrets…“This is the law of sport. You get this far, credit to Ankara who took home the golden set. But we still have one regret and it is the regret of knowing that we brought Milan to the European Cup, the Champions League, for the first time, but perhaps this was not perceived.” Piazza is referring to the missed opportunity to play the two most important matches against the Poles of Zawiercie and against the Turks at the Allianz Cloud due to the unavailability of the facility.
With his 16 points, Matey Kaziyski made a great contribution to Allianz Milano against Ankara.
“Unfortunately they put two more balls on the ground, two balls on the line which really weigh a lot in such a short set. They were better, they had slightly more luck. We missed a little something as an opportunity. I think it was a great performance from both teams. I think it was also a good match to watch. It’s a shame that we didn’t manage to get through. Now we still have the objective of the championship. Modena arrives on Sunday. The fact that we played on Tuesday gives us time to prepare properly, I’m not worried about the energy spent. I believe that in the playoffs if we manage to maintain this pace and this level we can go a long way further” he concludes.
