CEV, Luxembourg. The 1st Round of the CEV Champions League Volley Men 2021 continued today with two extremely interesting matches from pools D and F, taking place in Austria and Italy respectively. If in Pool D, the match between SK Zadruga AICH/DOB and Dinamo MOSCOW was the match to round up this first tournament of the pool, the match in Pool F between IBB Polonia LONDON and Trentino ITAS kicked off the tournament.
As always, all matches from the CEV Champions League Volley are available as livestreams and view on demand on CEV’s own platform, EuroVolley.TV.
Pool D: SK Zadruga AICH/DOB vs Dinamo MOSCOW
In this final match of the first tournament of Pool D we had the two undefeated teams facing each other after wins against the third participant of the tournament, Bulgarian Champions Neftochimik Burgas. After today’s win, Dinamo Moscow leads the Pool with SK Zadruga AICH/DOB in second. For the Bulgarians of Neftochimik BURGAS, winning all remaining matches is all that is left if they are to keep any hope of advancing in the competition. The second tournament starts tomorrow.
- Tonight the Austrian underdog could play without any pressure against the Russian top team Dinamo MOSCOW since they had unexpectedly defeated the Bulgarian champion Neftochimik BURGAS right at the beginning of this tournament.
- SK Zadruga AICH/DOB showed eager determination to challenge their seemingly unbeatable opponent, leading to exciting rallies and nerve-wrecking neck-to-neck races, but were finally not strong enough to win this match.
- AICH/DOB’s Konrad FORMELA was named match MVP after a performance that saw him scoring 19 points this evening, followed by the Russian star Tsvetan SOKOLOV with 16 points.
- Martin MICHEU, Sports Manage SK Zadruga AICH/DOB: “We knew which mighty opponent was awaiting us tonight, so we are not disappointed about the defeat. Our rookies showed much resistance, had many outstanding moments and were even able to win one set, but we all agree that the Russians’ victory is well-deserved. All in all, I am very proud of our team and their performance tonight, and I am very grateful for our fans’ support, as they really created a Champions League-like atmosphere here at the JUFA Arena Bleiburg this evening.
Pool F: IBB Polonia LONDON vs Trentino ITAS
The opening match of Pool F saw the multiple English Champion of IBB Polonia take on Trentino ITAS from Italy, a side with a considerable experience in European competitions.
- A great first win at the BLM Group Arena in the CEV Champions League Volley for Trentino Itas, after previous wins in the seasonal debuts of Supercoppa and SuperLega in Italy
- The possible qualification into the second round for Giannelli and teammates will most likely be decided in the match on Thursday evening when they will be facing the Serbians of Novi Sad.
- Nimir confirmed once again to be in good shape (13 points 80% in attack, 2 Blocks and 3 Aces), with his substitute Argenta doing a great job as well, scoring 5 points. Among the Italian squad, Lucarelli also had a great performance (11 points, 100% in attack) and so did Podrascanin (12 points, 73% in attack, 3 Blocks and 1 Ace). Among the players of the IBB, only Nilsson and Dalakouras were close to a two-digit number of personal points (9).
- “We’ve debut as we wanted to, thanks to this clear victory now we are even more ready for this competition – said Trentino’s coach Angelo Lorenzetti at the end of the match-. I also seized the opportunity to change the turnover a bit; some players benefit more, some other less. But now the only thing we’ve to do is to think about the match against Novi Sad on Thursday: the prize is the qualification to the next round. And we really want it!”
