CEV, Luxembourg. Pool E for the men’s Champions League started with a five set thriller. After all the struggles in getting matches played, Trentino managed to gain a important victory in their first game against their Russian counter-parts. Lokomotiv, have also had their own challenges in recent times, yet the team showed its resilience right up until the last set where Nimir Abdel-Aziz took the match into his own hands from the service line. In the second match VfB FRIEDRICHSHAFEN recovered from dropping the 3rd set to seal an important victory in four sets.
TRENTINO Itas (ITA) vs. Lokomotiv NOVOSIBIRSK (RUS) 3-2 (21-25, 23-25, 25-23, 25-23, 15-2)
The first match in Trento rewards the home team, able to recover after the first two matches 0-2 despite the fact that they were playing without captain Giannelli and his usual substitute Sperotto. So Nimir Abdel-Aziz begun leading the play and minute by minute managed to create a good feeling among all the players, his actions have definitely been the main factor of the positive result of the tie break (serving from 5-2 to 15-2).
The best in defensive role was Dick Kooy; the Dutch player showed the best continuity of play of the whole match. He personally scored 20 points, surpassing Ivovic (14) and Savin (15).
Nimir Abel-Aziz resulted as the MVP of the match, not only because he played as setter (it had been 6 years since he last played as setter continually), but also for what he did during set number 5, its result was definitely determined by his serves: in the end he scored 12 points (3 blocks and 6 aces).
The best player among Novosibirsk team was the middle-blocker Lyzik, who personally scored 15 points and he also showed a good continuity of play: 64% in attack, 4 block and 2 aces.
Considering all European matches, this afternoon Trentino Volley played the 135th official competition: winning 109 times (55 in Trento, 54 on away field), being defeated 26 times (20 in Champions League, 5 in CEV and 1 in Top Teams Cup). In this competition, Trentino Volley has never been defeated this season: 5 matches and 5 victories.
Although there were some key players missing in Trentino other players perfectly cover their fellow team players and bring the success into their team. Nimir Abdel-Aziz (Trentino Itas) who takes great responsibility expressed his opinion about the game as “I’m happy because we got to win this match, a very important and difficult one, considering that we were 0-2 but in the end we managed to recover and eventually win. 2 points are a lot, given that our opponent was Novosibirsk : the Russian champion.”
While Petar Shopov of Lokomotiv NOVOSIBIRSK said – “At the end of the third set, Trentino were a little lucky. They served well, but we were not able to gain a necessary point in time. I suppose that was the turning point. There was not enough freshness in the tie break. Over the past 10 days, we have played several games, were on the weary road. We did not really train in this hall. Moreover, we lost the concentration in a game. We need to give credit to the opponent – Nimir served perfectly in the fifth set.”
?EZ KARLOVARSKO (CZE) vs. VfB FRIEDRICHSHAFEN (GER) 1-3 (14-25, 22-25, 25-23, 16-25)
FRIEDRICHSHAFEN took the lead in Pool E after TRENTINO and NOVOSIBIRSK shared the points in the earlier match. It was an amazing start for the Häfler. VfB FRIEDRICHSHAFEN overpowered ?EZ KARLOVARSKO to 14 points with the German team spiking five aces – Nicolas Marechal with two in a row. Linus Weber came back to Italy, after he played in Milano last year, with 21 points.
KARLOVARSKO blocked FRIEDRICHSHAFEN 15 times in the match but couldn’t take the match to a 5th set in the end.
What a week for Markus Steuerwald. First his wife gave birth to his second daughter. Then the German Libero starting with a straight win into his 12th Champions League season.
“These were three very important points for us. We started easy into the game, perhaps it was too easy for us because we couldn’t succeed in the third set. But I think this was a well deserved victory. We are looking forward to face Novosibirsk tomorrow.“ Michael Warm, Coach VfB FRIEDRICHSHAFEN.
