09/05/2018 10:58
Newly crowned Italian champions PERUGIA hungry for more glory
2018 CEV Volleyball Champions League - Men
Luxembourg, May 9, 2018. Sir Colussi Sicoma PERUGIA will be contesting their second Final Four in a row this coming weekend in Kazan – and they will be doing so after last year they hosted the premier event in men’s Volleyball at Palalottomatica in Rome, with some 11,500 fans in attendance for the gold medal match with Zenit KAZAN. The ‘Block Devils’ have just won their first ever ‘Scudetto’ in the Italian national league at the end of a dramatic five-match championship series with Cucine Lube CIVITANOVA. On Saturday night, at 19:00 local time, they will play hosts and CL five-time winners Zenit KAZAN in a real ‘Clash of the Titans’.
It has been a truly successful season for PERUGIA this far – as they swept all domestic titles (Supercup, national cup and national league) along the way to #CLF4Kazan. Their journey in the CEV Champions League started as early as in the 3rd Round where they beat Belarus national champions Shakhtior SOLIGORSK before sweeping six matches in a row in Pool A. After that, they beat Halkbank ANKARA in the Playoffs 12 without dropping a set and secured their ticket to Kazan by eliminating 2013 CL gold medal winners Lokomotiv NOVOSIBIRSK in the Playoffs 6.
Sir Colussi Sicoma PERUGIA will be hoping to make amends for the 0-3 loss they suffered in last year’s final when taking on Zenit KAZAN in the semis. They will be able to count on a star-studded roster including, among others, Luciano De Cecco, Ivan Zaytsev and the best scorer of this year’s Champions League, Aleksandar Atanasijevic. The Serbian opposite has scored as many as 235 points this far, almost 60 more than Maurice Torres, who follows in second place on 176.
On top of this, the ‘Block Devils’ will be travelling to the capital of Tatarstan with a number of their own fans – taking the same charter flight than the team, who is due to arrive in Kazan on Thursday late afternoon.
Despite their many successes this year, PERUGIA are certainly hungry for more – and are determined to become the first Italian team to claim the men’s CL crown since TRENTINO Volley swept three titles in a row between 2009 and 2011.
Click here for further information or visit the official website http://finalfour.zenit-kazan.com/en.
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