26/01/2016 19:47
PGE Skra delight home crowd with commanding win, secure ticket to Playoffs
2016 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League – Men
Belchatow, Poland, January 26, 2016. PGE Skra BELCHATOW needed just 76 minutes to defeat Dukla LIBEREC 3-0 (25-18, 25-17, 25-19) and book second place in Pool E of the 2016 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League – Men and with it also a place among the 12 best teams in Europe. This season the Polish giants are making their tenth appearance in Europe’s elite competition and for the tenth time they have now progressed to the Playoff stage.
The home team started very motivated and took the opening set very comfortably with an amazing 74% efficiency in attack. Facundo Conte led PGE Skra to some spectacular actions, scoring eight points on his own. Also Israel Rodriguez showed a lot of quality adding four points to the count of the home side and finishing the set with a powerful ace.
The Czech underdogs showed good spirit at the beginning of the second set, when the visitors took the lead at 5-3, thanks to good spikes killed by Jan Galabov. PGE Skra head coach Miguel Angel Falasca asked for a time-out and the hosts responded by scoring four points to emphasise their domination in the match. The score was close however, until Srecko Lisinac served an ace, contributing to a 20-15 lead for Skra. It is worth mentioning that Polish opposite Adrian Patucha did a good job for Dukla, seemingly very motivated by the match taking place on Polish soil.
The CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League had returned to Belchatow after 363 days, because PGE Skra had played their previous home matches this season before 12,000 fans at Atlas Arena in Lodz. The home support was hot as usual and Energia Sports Hall sold out, so Falasca’s men delivered another show in the third and final set as well. The opponents from the Czech Republic were unable to keep the pace of the hosts and failed to take at least one set from this match.
Mariusz Wlazly and Facundo Conte turned out to be the best scorers with 15 points apiece. Both players contributed to the amazing 67% attack efficiency of PGE Skra. Jan Galabov was the best scorer of Dukla with 11 points.
“It was not easy for us to play versus PGE Skra. They served really well and made us play with high balls, which is extremely difficult versus teams with a defence like theirs. We gained a lot of experience in the CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League this year – we won only two sets but we enjoyed being a part of this competition,” stated Michal Nekola, the coach of Dukla LIBEREC.
Miguel Falasca was very happy with the win, his team’s qualification to the Playoffs and the style of the victory: “We needed such a performance after a series of bad matches. We were very close to perfection in attack and regained a good shape. There are a lot of difficult matches in front of us and a performance like this makes us feel very optimistic about the future,” said the mentor of PGE Skra.
Click here for more info including detailed stats of the match
Click here for a short video interview with Jan Galabov (Dukla LIBEREC)
Click here for a short video interview with Srecko Lisinac (PGE Skra BELCHATOW)
Click here for a short video interview with Nicolas Uriarte (PGE Skra BELCHATOW)
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