European cups
Piacenza and Treia out of the Champions League
2015 DenizBank Champions League
PlayOffs 12 return legs
Asseco Resovia Rzeszow (POL) – VfB Friedrichshafen (GER) 3-1 (25-18, 25-16, 22-25, 25-17)
Lokomotiv Novosibirsk (RUS) – Tomis Constanta (ROU) 3-0 (25-13, 25-12, 25-21)
Sir Safety Perugia (ITA) – Jastrzebski Wegiel (POL) 3-0 (25-18, 25-22, 25-17)
Zenit Kazan (RUS) – Copra Piacenza (ITA) 3-2 (25-13, 24-26, 25-14, 30-32, 15-10)
PGE Skra Belchatow (POL) – Cucine Lube Treia (ITA) 3-1 (26-24, 19-25, 25-22, 25-21)
Belogorie Belgorod (RUS) – Halkbank Ankara (TUR) 3-1 (14-25, 25-17, 25-16, 25-22) – Golden Set 11-15
PGE SKRA BELCHATOW – CUCINE LUBE TREIA 3-1 (26-24, 19-25, 25-22, 25-21)
PGE SKRA BELCHATOW : Lisinac 18, Wlazly 12, Klos 5, Conte 15, Wrona 1, Uriarte 1, Wlodarczyk 4, Winiarski, Brdjovic, Piechocki (L), Tille (L), Marechal 12. Coach. Falasca Fernandez.
CUCINE LUBE TREIA : Fei, Henno (L), Parodi 11, Paparoni (L), Stankovic 7, Kovar 4, Sabbi 17, Monopoli, Shumov 2, Kurek 14, Baranowicz 1, Podrascanin 6. Coach. Giuliani.
The Italian champions were defeated 3-1 by Belchatow in the playoffs 12 return leg and are out of the Champions League. Giuliani’s men needed a breakthrough and they gave it a good fight in each set, but pushed by 11 thousand supporters, the hosts played with determination and won it. After a first set lost by the minimum margin, Podrascanin and co regained some hope by taking the second, but Belchatow bounced back in the third when the qualification was already in their hands.
Alberto Giuliani (coach Cucine Lube Treia): “We went for it, but there’s always a big difference between trying and actually making the upset. Shame we lost that first set, that was the key to the game in my opinion. We made a couple of silly mistakes and lost it. My main disappointment in these playoffs 12 come from the first sets: the one played in Civitanova and the one in the Atlas Arena. Tonight, in the second set, we hit the serve harder and tied it at 1-1, then in the third set two spikes from Parodi that did not go down made the difference, and the substitution with Kovar meant we have been more shaky in reception. I said it before, right now we are short-handed, shame we could not play these European games with Kurek and Kovar fully fit”.
ZENIT KAZAN – COPRA PIACENZA 3-2 (25-13, 24-26, 25-14, 30-32, 15-10)
ZENIT KAZAN: Anderson 25, Apalikov 4, Sivozhelez 5, Salparov (L), Marouflakrani 2, Leon Venero 15, Ashchev 6, Poletaev 5, Kobzar 2, Gutsalyuk 8, Spiridonov 3, Mikhailov 11. Coach. Alekno.
COPRA PIACENZA : Alletti 9, Marra (L), Poey Romero 7, Papi 1, Ter Horst 17, Da Silva Pedreira Junior (L), Massari 5, Zlatanov 5, Ostapenko 4, Tencati 2, Kohut 10, Tavares Rodrigues 1. Coach. Radici.
Piacenza pushed Kazan to a tie-break but its determination was not enough to pull the upset needed. The Russians only had to win two sets to go through to the playoffs 6 and Alekno’s men celebrated qualification when they won the third set. Still, no regrets for Piacenza who’s been the only team capable of taking two sets against Kazan, who had yet to lose even one in the competition in seven games played.
Andrea Radici (coach Copra Piacenza): “Kazan’s serve made it very hard for us, especially in the third set when Mikhailov’s run of serves just killed it. But we had a good performance, and hopefully we’ll be able to see more of the same in the remaining games of the SuperLega. Tonight the boys have given everything they had”.
PlayOffs 6 draw
Lokomotiv Novosibirsk (RUS) – Asseco Resovia Rzeszow (POL)
Sir Safety Perugia (ITA) – PGE Skra Belchatow (POL)
Zenit Kazan (RUS) – Halkbank Ankara (TUR)
The three qualified teams will join Berlin in the Final Four scheduled on March 28-29. The Germans were directly qualified as the organizer of the event.
Fixtures
PlayOffs 6 first leg
March 3-5
PlayOffs 6 return leg
March 10-12
European Cups
CEV and Challenge Cup resume in March
2015 CEV Cup
Challenge Round
Volley behappy2 Asse-Lennik (BEL) – Precura Antwerp (BEL)
Dinamo Moscow (RUS) – Fenerbahce SK. Istanbul (TUR)
Energy T.I. Diatec Trentino (ITA) – Knack Roeselare (BEL)
Zaksa Kedzierzyn-Kozle (POL) – Cai Teruel (ESP)
Fixtures
Challenge Round first leg
Thursday March 5 at 8.30pm
Energy T.I. Diatec Trentino (ITA) – Knack Roeselare (BEL)
(Marin-Senyurt)
2015 CEV Challenge Cup
Quarter-finals
Crvena Zvezda Beograd (SRB) – CMC Ravenna (ITA)
Benfica Lisboa (POR) – Ethnikos Alexandropoulis (GRE)
Galatasaray Fxtcr Istanbul (TUR) – Vojvodina NS Seme Novi Sad (SRB)
Maliye Milli Piyango Ankara (TUR) – Stroitel Minsk (BLR)
Fixtures
Quarter-finals first leg
Wednesday March 4 at 6pm
Crvena Zvezda Beograd (SRB) – CMC Ravenna (ITA)
(Probst-Ryabtsov)
