A series of thrilling matches

CEV Indesit Champions League

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Luxembourg, December 17, 2008. The fourth leg of the Men’s CEV Indesit Champions League provided some interesting results, especially as some teams were trying to exploit their last chance to continue vying for a pass to the 1/8 Finals. While Italian super team TRENTINO Volley experienced some troubles against aon hotVolleys VIENNA – and eventually lost the first two sets so far in this season – Panathinaikos ATHENS scored an amazing victory against former champion VfB FRIEDRICHSHAFEN of Germany. The guys of Mr. Moculescu will have to give it all in January, as the Champions League will resume after the Christmas holidays, to make it to the next round. Belgium’s Noliko MAASEIK totally reversed the outcome of the match played last week in Portugal and defeated VITORIA SC in straight sets, thus bouncing back in full contention for a spot into the next phase.

Herewith a detailed recap of the various matches played tonight all over Europe.

Pool A

Fenerbahce ISTANBUL was defeated in straight sets (17-25, 7-25, 11-25) in the match played tonight against Iraklis THESSALONIKI in front of 1,100 spectators. Belgian referee Johan Callens was on the court for his last international match. That’s why CEV Supervisor Willy Bruninx – also from Belgium – presented him with a plate just before the match. Both teams were seeking for the leadership of Pool A. Iraklis was the faster team to start out the match quite offensively with the strong serves of German setter Simon Tischer. Thanks the continous scores of opposite player Marcus Nilsson and spiker Aleh Akhrem, the guests rapidly won the f rst set 17-25. The second set started like a horror movie for Fenerbahce. Iraklis was a thunder and knocking out the home team (1-8 at the first technical time-out). While 100 Greek supporters were already singing victory songs, Fenerbahçe scored a single point thanks to an error of the Greeks and at the second break the score went up to 3-16. Finally the nightmare was over at 7-25. Fenerbahce changed 3 players at the beginning of the third set. However, the Greeks were still leading 5-8. Turkey’s big team was still having troubles until the second technical time out (6-16).

This trend was maintained until the very end with Iraklis closing it at 25-11. Gyorgy Demeter, the trainer of Fenerbahce, said: “We didn’t start the game how we wanted. Especially in the second and the third sets Iraklis serves were too effective. We couldn’t find a solution for that and their blocks stopped us. We are sorry to have lost the game.” Team captain Hakan Fertelli: “It is a distressful score for us. We apologize our supporters for the bad game we played, but we have still chances to go to the next round.” Kostas Arseodis, head coach of Iraklis, added: “We played perfectly today. We did everything what volleyball needs and had a bright victory. The injury of Grbic decreases Fenerbahce’s power. We want to finish this group in first place. Good luck to Fenerbahce for their next matches”. Team captain Andrei Kravarik said: “This is a great game for us. We played better than last week and won gladsome. We lost 3 matches in a row in the Greek National League and this victory is very important for us. We would like to be the leader of the group. The Champions League is very hard this year and we wish to go till the final four.”

In that same Pool Domex Tytan AZS CZESTOCHOWA won a second match in a row in the CEV Indesit Champions League. The Polish team defeated the guests from Bulgaria, namely CSKA SOFIA, 3:0 (25-13, 25-20, 25-16) at the Polonia area in Częstochowa. Domex Tytan AZS has been much better in each part of the game. The local players showed a fantastic volleyball. Some young players of the Polish team were even much stronger than the experienced members of CSKA’s team with their blocks and serves. After winning this match the Poles are closer to qualify to the next phase of the Champions League, whilst CSKA is still without any victory.

Pool B

For Belgium’s Noliko MAASEIK tonight’s game against VITORIA SC was perhaps the most important to secure some chances to qualify to the next round of the Champions League. Last week they severely lost against that same team in Portugal. VITORIA SC is a strong team including several Brazilians (4 players and the coach). 2,200 spectators came to the brand new Lotto Dôme to see both teams go side by side till 8-8 in the first set. Noliko then sped up to 16-9 with strong serves and mighty blocks. The Belgians led 21-15 and then closed the set at 25-18 with a strong block from youngster Gert van Walle. MAASEIK took a reassuring lead in the second set (first 8-4 and then 11-4) with the strong defense of Derkoningen. The Portuguese were not as impressive as last week at their home and Noliko sailed to 20-8 to finish the job a few minutes later with a clear 25-10. In the third set both teams stayed at the beginning (9-7 for the Belgians). At 12-8 Noliko appeared to be on track to win this important game but VITORIA struggled back to 14-12 and 18-17. Nevertheless, the Belgians sped up once again the operations and put an end to the match at 25-23. Youngster Kevin Klinkenberg from Noliko stated: “Our team was again fighting will full confidence today. For sure we wanted to win this game more than anything else”.

Pool C

Knack Randstad ROESELARE secured a third victory in Pool C, this time against Crvena Zveda BEOGRAD, and in easy three straight sets (25:20, 25:20, 25:22), after 69 minutes in the SC Sumice hall in Belgrade in front of 1,000 spectators. In the second match against ROESELARE, the Serbians realized once again that this opponent is really much stronger and experienced for their current standards. It was in the second set, as the scoreboard stood at 16-16, that the local supporters started thinking that their guys might have had the chance to seize the night. Still after so many participations to the Champions League, it was no wonder that the Belgians won in straight sets. For the real regret of their fans, the Serbians are still looking for their first victory in the Main Phase. Belgian coach Dominique Bayens stated: “Crvena Zvezda is a very young team from which we should expect much more in the years to come. In the last match at home we played very good, but that was exactly what we wanted, with good serves and all. We knew coming there that it wouldn’t have been an easy match. And here, I definitely expected a really difficult game, so I was surprised with the bad way the Serbians played today, as I don’t think we played an excellent game, just normal”. ROESELARE’s player Milos Nikic added: “We did succeed in defeating Crvena Zvezda for the second time which was basically our aim to clinch a ticket for the second round of the Champions League. That was our goal from the beginning. Crvena Zvezda did not give their maximum nor did they play their best as we expected. We played as much as it was necessary to win and we won without a major effort, achieving the goal we planned, i.e. get into the second position of the pool and to continue our campaign in this event”. The head coach of Crvena Zvezda, Zeljko Bulatovic, emphasized: “It’s not about the defeat, I think we played far below our possibilities. It looked as if the players were intimated by their opponents with no reasons at all. At the press conference, I announced that we had no pressure to play and win, and that was true. I thought that with the help of our supporters the players could do much more, however we played confused, without ideas, only for a few moments showed that we can do much better. But we had no serves. And when you’re playing against teams who have this kind of specific game, then you’re completely lost. With such fast balls you can hardly build up a block”.
The best scorer in the whole match was Tuerlinckx from ROESELARE with 18 points. In their team the second best scorer was the Serbian national player Milos NIkic with 10 points. For Crvena Zvezda Dokic scored at the most with 12 followed by Terzic with 9 points.

Pool E

Determined to score their first victory in this season’s CEV Indesit Champions League the team of aon hotVolleys VIENNA started very well in the match against TRENTINO Volley from Italy. The numerous spectators at the Budocenter competition hall saw an exciting fight between the two teams. The Italian top team – leader of Pool E – was on the verge of losing the first set in this season’s Champions League. But in the end the players of TRENTINO Volley were able to secure the first set with 31-29. However, the home team did not give up. The Austrians continued to fight with all their might and were able to keep up a close head to head race with the Italians also in the second set. But again the players of TRENTINO had the better end to themselves, winning the set at 23-25. Also the third set was a close fight. The enthusiastic spectators in Vienna saw their players give their best to stay in the game and to conserve the chance of moving on to the next round in the competition. Due to their great fighting spirit the Austrian players were able to win the set clearly with 25-18, causing the guests from Italy to lose the first set in this season. Hurt in their pride the players of TRENTINO stepped up the pace at the beginning of the fourth set, gaining an early lead over their opponents. But the home team fought back, cheered by the crowd at the Budocenter. The match waged back and in the end the the aon hotVolleys were able to secure the set with 25-23. In the decisive fifth set the guests from Italy gained an early lead, securing the set with 15-9 and thus the 3:2 victory in this match.

Pool F

A week after the victory in the away match in Germany, Panathinaikos ATHENS defeated again – this time at home – VfB FRIEDRICHSHAFEN 3:1 (25-17, 15-25, 28-26, 25-18). For the second consecutive match in the Champions League, Panathinaikos played without having many fans in Glyfada. The reasons are that there many basketball matches in the other side of Athens and the traffic strikes that are damaging the movement of the people in the Greek capital city. The home team started the game very confidently. The coach Alekos Leonis used the same players as in Germany last week and we have to mention that local star Agamez was ill! Block and attacks were the keys in the first set and the team of ATHENS performed very well both skills. At the second technical time out the score stood at 16-11 and without problems the set finished 25-17. The second set started differently. FRIDERICHSHAFEN was more concentrated and improved the serves and the block so at the first technical time out the Germans led 3-8 and some smiles returned to their faces. Grozer and Idi made the difference in attacking whilst Panathinaikos made many mistakes. So the score at the second technical time out went up to 9-16 and the set was hard to be returned. Chatziantoniou took the place of Geric in order that the Serbian central could take a breath for the next set. With the hands down Panathinaikos lost the second set 15-25. VfB, full of energy, continued with the same rhythm in the third set (5-10) with Grozer being in a great shape. The home team found back some strength and leveled at 20 and changed the whole face of the game. Agamez just made the 28-26 and the set count move to 2-1 for the Greeks! In the fourth set Panathinaikos showed how difficult it is to win at its home. So, the green team with great statistics at block, serve and reception didn’t have problem to control the score (16-10 at the second technical time out), rapidly closing the set (25-18) and the match 3:1! After the match, the coach of Panathinaikos said: “It was a difficult game. We played with problems because Agamez was sick but he scored some points and we are still alive in the pool. We all know that it is a difficult pool, so we’ll keep going and at the end we will know who qualifies to the next round”. Stelian Moculescu didn’t want to make any statement after that second defeat in a row against the Greeks.