Minsk, Belarus, October 19, 2017. After the 3-2 victory over Rocheville LE CANNET in the first match of the 2nd round CEV Volleyball Champions League on Tuesday, Minchanka MINSK is ready for the second match, which will be held on Saturday in Belarus.  The objective for both teams is clear: earn themselves a match against the reigning European and World Club champions, VakifBank ISTANBUL.

The second match will be held in the Sports complex "Uruchje" where a Volleyball match will take place for the first time in history. This hall, which seats 3,000 spectators, was opened after some significant restoration in 2016. The next day it will host a match in the 2nd round of the 2018 CEV Volleyball Champions League - Men between Shakhtior SOLIGORSK and Maccabi TEL-AVIV.

Minchanka MINSK

- Minchanka MINSK takes part in the CEV Volleyball Champions League for the second year in a row — after the debut last season. In the 2nd Round last year the champion of Belarus defeated HPK HÄMEENLINNA of Finland after a close match in the golden set.
- In the 3rd Round last year there was a meeting with the Turkish side of Eczacibasi VitrA ISTANBUL, who became the eventual bronze medallists of the competition.
- In both these seasons Minchanka MINSK is headed by the former head coach of the Belarus national team, Viktar Hancharou.
- A rarity in todays game, the home team have no foreign players on their roster - they are all from Belarus.  Five of their players formed part of the national team that went to the 2017 CEV Volleyball European Championship where they finished 7th, the best result to date for Belarus.

Rocheville Le CANNET

- It took 148 minutes in the first match to determine a winner, with the French side losing out by 2 points - both in the 5th set 13-15 but also in the overall total 113-115.

Quote

Viktar Hancharou, head coach of Minchanka MINSK: "These are two equal opponents. The first game was very tense for us. We did not see before the game the host's Cuban diagonal Dayami Sanchez Savon, who disrupted our plans. But already in the game we understood how to act against her, so she fell down in the fifth set. Rocheville LE CANNET is a technical, tactically trained, clever team, so the second match in Minsk will also be difficult for us."

How to follow the match...

Watch it live: http://cev.laola1.tv/

Live score, statistics, reports and photos: all available on www.cev.lu

Social Media: Follow via the official event hashtag (#CLVolleyW), with the most regular updates coming on our competition Twitter account @CEVolleyballCL

What`s next?

With Minchanka MINSK winning the first match in France they now need any kind of victory to progress.  However, if Rocheville Le CANNET can win 3-0 or 3-1 they will progress. Should the match go to another tie-break and this time it go the way of the French side, it will require a golden set to determine the winner.