Not even time to celebrate the splendid victory of the Italian Cup in Turin, the 30th trophy in the history of the yellow-blues, and the Antonio Carraro Prosecco DOC Conegliano is back on the road at dawn today, destination Turkey. Captain Wolosz and her teammates were welcomed at Marco Polo airport in Venice in the SAVE Group Hospitality and left early in the morning for Ankara to play tomorrow the fifth and penultimate round of Pool D of the CEV Zeren Group Champions League. Tomorrow at 16.00 Italian time at the TVF Ziraat Bankkart Volleyball Hall in Ankara there is the challenge against Ankara Zeren Spor Kulübü. In the first leg, the Panthers won a suffered tie break by also canceling 5 match points at the Palaverde and then won the challenge 3-2, now the yellow-blues lead the group with 11 points against Zeren’s 10. The match is crucial because the 4 best winners at the end of the five groups will avoid the first round of playoffs, qualifying directly for the quarterfinals.
PREVIOUS AND FORMER: It will be the second historical confrontation between the two teams. Among the ranks of Ankara there is the former Ofelia Malinov, Italian setter at the Palaverde in the 2016-17 season.
REFEREES: Yovchev (BUL) and Lopes Pinto (POR)
MEDIUM: Simultaneous live television coverage of all CEV Zeren Group Champions League matches is on Sky Sport and DAZN. Live updates and post-match interviews on Imoco Volley’s social profiles
STATEMENTS BY COACH DANIELE SANTARELLI”
On Sunday we experienced an extraordinary day that led us to a beautiful success. I’m happy for the girls, for the fans and for the presidents, I know how much they suffered to get back to winning ways again this season, but now we have to turn the page to start again. We have to be good at resetting ahead of tomorrow’s match which brings us back to the Champions League. Tomorrow in Ankara we will play a very difficult match against a team that is having an excellent championship in Turkey and that put us to the test at the Palaverde in the first leg. Zeren is well trained and has very strong strikers, we know the risks of this trip, even more so after having experienced such a full weekend as the one in Turin. It has happened to us in the past to fall into missteps like this, I would like the team to arrive ready for another big match this January”.
MACERATA AND LKS LODZ
PRESALE The Panthers will return to play at the Palaverde after winning the eighth Italian Cup on Sunday 1 February at 5 pm for the championship match against Macerata, few tickets are still available online on the Vivaticket.com website. The pre-sale for the Champions League match on Wednesday 4 February at 20.30 against LKS Lodz is already open, tickets available online on Vivaticket.com