Berlin, Germany, May 17, 2019. Tens of media came together on Friday afternoon at Park Inn Hotel in Berlin to sit down with the star players and coaches of the teams participating in the historic CEV Champions League Volley 2019 Super Finals. Some 24 hours away from the ‘big matches’ at the iconic Max-Schmeling-Halle, the stars of the Super Finals shared their feelings as well as their pride for being part of such a truly unprecedented event in Volleyball history.
Talking about the repeat of the 2018 gold medal match with Zenit KAZAN, Ferdinando De Giorgi, head coach of Cucine Lube CIVITANOVA, said, “I like the new style of the competition. The Super Finals promise to be a great event for our sport. The semi-finals showed the best of European club Volleyball. However, in my opinion the best two teams reached this final. We will try to make the game as close as last year and I hope we can change the eventual result. Even though we play in Berlin, we hope to have a kind of home crowd advantage, because the fans of the two women’s teams will be supporting us as well.”
Alexander Butko, captain of titleholders Zenit KAZAN, who are vying for a fifth straight and seventh overall #CLVolleyM crown: “For us every title is important! The meaning of this match does not depend on what happened in the national championship some days ago [which they lost to Kuzbass KEMEROVO]. Last year’s final was as close as you can get it. I expect a similar one this time in Berlin. It never was as easy as it may look to win the CEV Champions League the last four years. However, our team is still top motivated to reach this big goal again. The new type of competition, having women’s and men’s final at one stage on one day, makes it more interesting for European Volleyball fans.”
Ahead of the all-Italian final with Igor Gorgonzola NOVARA, Joanna Wolosz, team captain of Imoco Volley CONEGLIANO commented, “Everyone simply cannot wait to play tomorrow in front of such an audience. A sold-out arena feels special to us players every time. Last year we played the Final Four, but a gold medal is still missing in our club’s history. We already have some teammates who won the trophy before with other teams, but the first title would be the ‘icing on the cake’ for everyone at CONEGLIANO after such a great season,” said the recently crowned Italian national champion.
Massimo Barbolini, head coach of Igor Gorgonzola NOVARA, said ahead of the ‘derby’ with Imoco Volley: “We do not have much time to change our way of playing since the national championship finals, but for sure we can do better. We know that we can change two or three things and we will try to do that.” Barbolini commended the format chosen to play the final stage of the competition: “I think it is a huge idea. To begin with, the idea of playing one final match instead of a Final Four is better for the players and the idea of combining both women’s and men’s finals is important for the Volleyball family. You can see athletes and coaches of different worlds coming together and I think it will be a nice show for the attending fans. I hope that this will be the first of many more finals like that. I have played four gold medal matches in the Final Four format and it does not make much difference to me, but I think one such final is more exciting for the media, so I like this idea.”
For further information, visit the official event website http://clvolley.cev.eu.