16/02/2015 09:31
‘Russian Express’ ready to take on re-match with CONSTANTA
2015 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League - Men
Novosibirsk, Russia, February 16, 2015. Russia’s Lokomotiv NOVOSIBIRSK made a first step towards their qualification for the Playoffs 6 of the 2015 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League – Men already last week when they recorded a 3:0 away win in Romania over Tomis CONSTANTA. The re-match is coming up on Wednesday, February 18, at SKK Sever and the local heroes will be trying to exploit the home advantage to make it one step closer to the Final Four scheduled for March 28-29 in Berlin, Germany.
Lokomotiv’s leadership in this double match up was quite ocular last week in Romania but the winners of the 2013 edition will have to deliver another good performance also at home as the roster of Tomis includes former and current members of the Romanian, Serbian, Bulgarian and Italian national teams. Still, their mentor Martin Stoev acknowledged last week that Lokomotiv is by far the strongest opponent they got to play there on the shores of the Black Sea.
The home guys of Lokomotiv can’t afford any sense of over-confidence as their schedule is very tight. In between the Playoffs 12 matches with Tomis, Lokomotiv got to play another Russian giant – Belogorie BELGOROD – in the Russian Superleague and this match up drained some mental and physical energy from the ‘Russian Express’. However, head coach Andrei Voronkov says that his guys have enough fuel left also for the re-match with CONSTANTA.
The local fans look forward to another home show by their heroes as they very much hope Lokomotiv will qualify for the Playoffs 6 and ultimately also for their second Final Four tournament after they seized the trophy in 2013 in Omsk.
|