20/01/2015 16:49
Bulgaria’s champions want to defend their honour in match up with 2014 bronze medallists JASTRZEBSKI Wegiel
2015 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League - Men
Dupnitsa, Bulgaria, January 20, 2015. On Thursday night Bulgaria’s champions Marek Union-Ivkoni DUPNITSA will be playing Poland’s JASTRZEBSKI Wegiel in the match on schedule for the fifth round of action in Pool B of the 2015 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League – Men. Marek Union-Ivkoni will be trying to defend their honours against last year’s bronze medallists since their chances to even move to the Challenge Round of the 2015 CEV Volleyball Cup – Men have already vanished. As for the guests from Poland, they will be determined to notch another victory to cement their chances to progress to the Playoffs 12.
JASTRZEBSKI Wegiel won the previous confrontation in Poland cruising to a straight-set victory but they lost both of their matches to Russia’s Lokomotiv NOVOSIBIRSK who have already claimed first place in the Pool and secured this way a ticket to the Playoffs. The team from Upper Silesia have won their last four matches in a row in their national league and are therefore travelling to Samokov, venue of the match with DUPNITSA, in high spirits.
Marek Union-Ivkoni still had some chances to continue their European journey but missed out on them after losing to CAI TERUEL. This means that the young players around head coach Nayden Naydenov will be playing ‘only’ to defend their honour. With the start of the New Year, Bulgaria’s champions have welcomed back Bulgaria’s national team player Venelin Kadankov who had missed the last couple of CL matches due to injury. Actually he still hasn’t recovered fully yet and it is not known if he will be able to play with JASTRZEBSKI and to travel to Siberia next week for the last match of the League Round with Lokomotiv NOVOSIBIRSK.
Most probably head coach Naydenov will be resting him and opting for Mihael Mandzhukov, who had a knee surgery only two months ago but has been playing great in recent times, and more specifically in the last two rounds of Bulgaria’s national league. On the other hand, Marek will be missing Georgi Elchinov since the outside spiker has left the team and already made his debut in Turkey’s national league wearing the shirt of TOKAT Plevne Belediyesi. Marek is currently ranked third in the Bulgarian national league after recording eight consecutive victories.
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