05/03/2014 09:00
Cinderella LATINA to defend Italian honour in European Cups
2014 CEV Volleyball Challenge Cup - Men
Latina, Italy, March 5, 2014. Andreoli LATINA is the only Italian team still in contention for glory in this year’s European Cup competitions. After losing the final match of the 2013 CEV Volleyball Cup to Halkbank ANKARA, LATINA will be playing another team from Turkey, Fenerbahce Grundig ISTANBUL, in an effort to seize the trophy of the CEV Volleyball Challenge Cup. This would compensate for a very disappointing season in the national league where Andreoli currently sits at the very bottom of the charts after winning only four matches out of nineteen.
LATINA would also redeem a disastrous campaign for the Italian teams in this year’s European Cups where they missed – for the first time since 2005 – on a spot in the Final Four of the CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League. Italy did not have much to celebrate also in the CEV Volleyball Cup where Bre Banca Lannutti CUNEO surprisingly lost to Germany’s TV Ingersoll BÜHL in the 1/8 finals.
After routing ISTANBUL BBSK at home in the first leg of the semis, LATINA needed to take another two sets from the return game played on Sunday in Turkey’s megalopolis and they eventually did so, so that the tie-break that followed was not going to have any impact on their successful quest for a spot in the finals.
“We expected a very difficult game and so it was,” Daniele Sottile comments. “They pressured us right from the first set but we eventually brought it home after a very close and long fight. Our performance was just superb in the fourth set where we showed our best game this year.”
“We played before their fans but we showed our desire to take the two sets we needed to make the finals,” adds libero Salvatore Rossini, a silver medallist from the 2013 CEV VELUX Volleyball European Championship with the Italian national team. “This time we want to take the trophy home and won’t repeat what happened last year in Ankara.”
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