Unusual time of 18.30pm for Wednesday Champions of Lube. Indeed, the last European Wednesday intended as a group stage, because today the red and whites receive at theEurosuole Forum il Project Warsaw in the sixth and final match of group E. With live coverage on both Dazn and Sky Sport, it is therefore the epilogue for a group that has already been “sentenced”, as Civitanova A week ago, they mathematically took first place. That’s what they needed to automatically advance to the quarterfinals of the continent’s most important competition. The CEV rules (by the way, the website has been down for weeks…) call for five mini-groups of four teams, with the top teams from each group advancing to the quarterfinals, while the second-placed teams and the best third-placed team will play a preliminary round to catch up with the others. The top three teams from the first phase will face those emerging from these additional matches.
Medei’s team currently knows they’ll have to face another Polish team, Zawiercie, the PlusLiga leaders. Here’s the standings in Group E: Lube 4 wins, 13 points (14 sets won, 3 lost); Projekt Warszawa 3 wins, 9 points (11-8); Montpellier 3 wins, 7 points (9-10); Volley Haasrode Leuven 0 wins, 1 point (3-14).
Civitanova They are therefore the only team to have won four of their five matches, all achieved in the first four rounds and without conceding a single set. Among the victims was Warsaw, which they surprisingly defeated 0-3 on January 21st in the third round of the group stage. It was surprising because the Poles were considered capable of challenging the red and whites for the top spot; it’s no coincidence that they are second in the league. Instead, coach Tiilikainen’s team, then replaced by assistant coach Nalepka after the change, fell to the blows of an excellent Nikolov and only managed to truly fight on equal terms in the third set, ultimately losing 24-26.
The roster includes players who have played in Italy or who are known for their qualities such as spikers Bednorz (a hand problem in the first leg), Tillie and also Klos, Weber and Kochanowski.
The other match in group E pits Belgian team Leuven against French team Montpellier, who are coming off a 3-2 victory over Lube last Tuesday, winning the tie-break after being ahead 2-0. It will also be played this evening but at 20.30pm. It is truly inconceivable that the CEV has not established the contemporaneity.