First round of Champions League was the “tiebreak round”. Six of 12 matches finished in five sets. Trentino faced good playing Friedrichshafen. Cuneo and Treviso had to fight untill the last point in tiebreak. Tours surprised all with a victory in Belgorod.
Trentino was favorite of the duel with Friedrichshafen. German champion start very well on serve and attacks from both middleblockers were very efficient during the whole match. After the first set M. Kaziyski and J. Stokr performed well and at the end the more experienced team celebrated victory.
“We had some problems in reception, so it was not possible to play more often with our middle blockers. The Mikasa ball is causing us some problems but next time we will be more prepared. Today we did not play at our best but the motivation helped us bring home this victory. We do not yet calculate the points in the rankings; we just want to play every match the best we can. I am happy about the physical condition of Kaziyski”, commented Radostin Stoytchev.
“They found best solutions than we did and they were more accurate and careful but I’m very happy about the performance of Tichacek and in general of our game, we are not used to play at this high level but I’m satisfied and I know that every match of the Champions League will be useful for us to improve our game” said head coach of Friedrichshafen Stelian Moculescu.
Champions League complete results
Russian vice-champion from Belgorod did not find the way to beat French Tours. Gennady Shipulin, head coach of Lokomotiv said after the game: “Our roster problems resulted in the defeat. We could not line-up our strongest team against TOURS VB. Kosarev was injured and we had to make some experiments. And still there is no proper coordination of the setters with other players. Of course we wanted to start the Champions League with a victory, especially at home. But our own mistakes and the French team’s confident performance did not let us do that. But we have more matches ahead and we will try to make our fans pleased with new victories”.
Eric Ngapeth, head coach of TOURS VB: “It’s not easy to play against Russian teams, as they always serve very strong. But today we managed to deal with Lokomotiv’s service which helped us to win finally. In my team in some moments Earvin Ngapeth was good, in some moments Bogdan Olteanu played very well. David Konecny also was very solid today. As for the home team I would like to mention Dmitriy Muserskiy. It was a big surprise for us to see him playing as opposite and we needed some time to get used to it. Also I can mention Taras Khtey, but in some moments he played good and in some moments he could not maintain the right consistency”.
from CEV
