17/02/2016 09:41
‘Match of the Week’ coming up tonight in Lodz with PGE Skra hosting Turkish sensation
2016 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League – Men
Lodz, Poland, February 17, 2016. After completing the League Round of the 2016 CEV DenizBank Volleyball Champions League – Men by finishing second in Pool E, PGE Skra BELCHATOW fully realised the difficulty of the task they had when competing with one of the group winners, Italy’s Cucine Lube CIVITANOVA. Their next match versus Ziraat Bankasi ANKARA was selected as ‘Match of the Week’ in the first leg of the Playoffs 12 and loads of emotions seem to be guaranteed.
PGE Skra BELCHATOW play their CL home matches in Atlas Arena in Lodz. It is an impressive venue, which is also known as the country’s ‘Volleyball Mecca’ and where 12,000 fans came together for the 2010 and 2012 CL Final Four tournaments as well as for some important matches played by the Polish national team. “It is a magical place and we also hope to create some magic there. It is going to be hot in the middle of the wintertime in Poland,” says Konrad Piechocki, PGE Skra President.
Ziraat Bankasi have travelled to Lodz after topping the charts in Pool B but it is very difficult to point the favourite of this clash. While the team currently sitting in fifth place in Turkey’s national league finished first in their group when making their debut in Europe’s elite competition, PGE Skra are much more experienced and this season marks their tenth participation in the CEV Volleyball Champions League.
PGE Skra, currently second in Poland’s PlusLiga, look forward to closing an extremely difficult and demanding part of their season. Last February 8 PGE Skra claimed the Polish national cup after a three-hour clash with Zaksa KEDZIERZYN-KOZLE, before edging reigning Polish champions and arch-rivals Asseco Resovia RZESZOW in an away match, also in five sets, just three days later. Another four days and a heavy 3-0 loss followed in Gdansk, after travelling for some 700 km from Rzeszow.
“I think that the physical condition of the team is good, and it cannot change in two, three days. We proved it during the Polish Cup finals and later on in Rzeszow, winning difficult matches against very strong teams. In a week we played a few important, very emotional and stressful matches under great pressure with a lot of travels in between. Our loss in Gdansk has nothing to do with Volleyball or our physical shape but rather with our mental approach. We must be stronger mentally if we want to win the title in the Polish League and move on to the next stage of the Champions League,” states PGE Skra BELCHATOW coach Miguel Angel Falasca.
“In the nearest future we will be playing against strong teams, and travelling a lot so we must recover from the pressure and improve our concentration and mental approach to the game. Now each game is like a final for us,” summarises the PGE Skra mentor.
The match versus Ziraat Bankasi will be a special one for Israel Rodriguez, who helped the Turkish team climb to the third spot of their national league last season and now plays for PGE Skra: “Ziraat Bankasi is strong from a tactical standpoint and a very emotional team. They always fight for every point through to the end of the match. But everything will be on our side, we can beat them,” says the Spanish-born outside spiker of PGE Skra.
To reach the Playoffs 6 PGE Skra need to stop Ziraat Bankasi superstar Marcus Nilsson. The Sweden-born opposite played for Poland’s Effector KIELCE a couple of years ago and received the award for the Most Valuable Player of the CL Final Four in 2013 which he won with Russia’s Lokomotiv NOVOSIBIRSK. “I know how strong PGE Skra is, I know it is difficult to beat them, but we all know it is possible. It is going to be a great match,” Nilsson said upon his arrival in Lodz.
|