26/10/2011 21:23
Fenerbahce Grundig beat MACERATA 3-2 and fly to top of the standings in Pool E
2012 CEV Volleyball Champions League – Men
Istanbul, Turkey, October 26, 2011. In front of 1’637 supporters and after a terrific battle Fenerbahce Grundig ISTANBUL eventually defeated Italy’s Lube Banca Marche MACERATA 3:2 (25-22, 28-26, 25-27, 25-27, 15-13) to claim the top rank in Pool E after two rounds of play.
Fenerbahce Grundig set the pace 5:2 in the opening set as a result of some errors made in defense by Cristian Savani, but the guest team bounced back to move up by the second technical break (15:16) via some good play of its opposite Igor Omrcen. Afterwards the score stayed extremely tight until Cuban star Leonel Marshall clipped two consecutive points for the home side (23:21) to be followed by a spike of Omrcen that fell off the court to seal the first set for the hosts (25-22).
The local heroes caught a splendid start in set 2 (5:1) but the Italians quickly answered back as the game was tied at 6; after that they forced Argentinean trainer Daniel Castellani to call a time-out as they stormed out to the provisional 7:10, but this stop did not put an end to the problems that Fenerbahce was having in defense. After trailing down 12:16, the guys in yellow and black jerseys sped up with Serbian star Ivan Miljkovic to catch the rival at 22 all; Marshall served for the set at 24:23 but without finalizing the quest before a series of side-outs was interrupted by an ace of Tomislav Coskovic (28-26) for the provisional 2:0.
Both teams played very solid in the third set: Lube Banca Marche set the pace by the first as well as by the second technical time-out but with the narrowest margin (7:8, 15:16) and Fenerbahce got a couple of match balls after Omrcen spiked long for the 24:22. However, MACERATA fought back bravely and stretched the match to the fourth set with the help of Cristian Savani (25-27).
Once again the guests got the lead by the second mandatory stop in set 4 (15:16) but Miljkovic and Marshall got Fenerbahce back on track (19:18) and another very close final rush was resolved in favor of the Italians (25-27) after Fenerbahce missed on another opportunity to finish it off as the score stood at 24:23. Lube Banca Marche got momentum also in the tie-break (6:8, 9:12) before the triple block of Fenerbahce and captain Arslan Eksi contributed the 12 all on the scoreboard. Miljkovic called for another match ball at 14:13 and this epic battle came to a close with a block-out for the joy of many fans that had got together at the “Burhan Felek” Volleyball Hall.
Local captain Arslan Eksi stated: “MACERATA is a strong team and they are on top of the standings in their national league. However we played well and won today. Congratulations to my teammates”. Head coach Daniel Castellani added: “We started the tournament very well. I am absolutely happy to get 2 points at the end of this match. Both teams could have won the game but we played better than they did in the money time of the tie-break”.
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