2016 CEV DenizBank Champions League

Quote from TimHH

Nerd.....

Absolutely

Quote from YavorD

Two streams at the same time for me, but I will also focus more on the game in Civitanova. I hope Matey's absence won't be too crucial for Trentino.

Well, it wasn't. Trentino enjoyed one of their perfect evenings and who would've thought they would be so convincing against the Russian armada with their problems and, moreover, with a squad like theirs. A perfectly prepared match by Stoychev, we have to start with that. Serves was a big advantage for the Italians, Giannelli was remarkable, Urnaut with his best performance since the ECH in Sofia. And when it actually mattered the most. You can't just ignore Stoychev's work, however. Nelli became a player under his guidance, the overall game system functions wonderfully even without Juantorena and Kaziyski, there are very few coaches out there who could put such a show against Muserskiy & co. with these players.

I watched this match partially because of the entertainment in Civitanova, but stayed for the whole third set and it was spectacular indeed, nothing less. This was a very shaky and inconclusive Belogorie side. This fiasco comes right when they had been on a roll. I am kind of sure the tie would go to a Golden Set, next week's encounter in Belgorod would be totally different, but facts are facts - Trentino did their job perfectly and could now even rely only on the Golden Set if things don't work out in the opening two parts next week.

I watched only the first three sets of the other match, I can't say much about what happened on Halkbank's field and why they failed to finish Lube. Before that I watched two very impressive sets by a team that didn't look like a bunch of mercenaries but rather as a title contender and surely as a team that belongs to this level. Serves was again a major advantage here, very diverse and effective serving by Halkbank that helped them to destroy the Italian reception. Sokolov didn't have his best evening, he could've contributed more, regardless of his scarce playtime so far due to the surgery. Unfortunately, Halkbank didn't finish the job till the end and they would've deserved to do so. The tie now starts all over next week and they need to be a little bit more consistent at home, for Lube are surely not as invincible as they had been supposed to be. One positive aspect for the Turks is that the problems, be it psychological or technical, they had at the beginning of the season are now behind and they are in shape for the most important part of the season. To me, of all teams fighting for the Final Four spots, even including Resovia, Halkbank looks in best shape and least exhausted. Alongside Zenit, of course. And now is the chance to make it count. For they have the opportunity to knock out two of the big three favourites at the beginning of the campaign in a row - Modena and Lube.

I questioned CEV's program last night and the decision to show simultaneously two of the three Playoffs 6 matches at the same time. They could've just picked different dates for the two matches in Italy and we could've seen them both without having to switch between streams (for the desperate souls like me).