Sada Cruzeiro and PGE Skra Belchatow claimed straight-set victories while Trentino Diatec overcame Al-Rayyan Sport Club after the true battle.
The favorites are winning in Doha. However that does not mean that we are witnessing a boring tournament. Only in the opening game in the pool A, between Sada Cruzeiro (Brazil) and Tigres UANL (Mexico) the winners achieved their aim easily. Brazilians made use of their experience and excellent skills and young team from Mexico wasn’t able to stop Wallace de Souza and his teammates. The strong serve and spike were main factors why Sada Cruzeiro won that game without the effort. Mexicans still got to learn a lot to gain more experience and become more self-confident. Wallace de Souza led his team to victory with 13 points scored.
Sada Cruzeiro – Tigres UANL 3-0 (25-17, 25-13, 25-18).
The second match in the pool A was much more interesting. Al-Rayyan Sport Club (Qatar) showed us that will to fight, right training regime plus some top-class foreign players make it difficult to play even for such prestigious clubs as Trentino Diatec. Valentin Bratoev and Mikko Oivanen led their team in every action and created the right atmosphere on the court. The most important moment for Trentino was come back of Osmany Juantorena who managed to change the fate of this game and from this moment on Trento reminded themselves who is the defending club world champion. Also Emanuele Birarelli and Matey Kaziysjki played at the top-level. The tie-break belonged to Italians however this particular game could have ended with some major surprise. That is the confirmation of the possibility to achieve some great result of the Qatar team at this championship.
Trentino Diatec – Al-Rayyan Sport Club 3-2 (22-25, 25-18, 23-25, 25-17, 15-9)
The rivalry in pool B started with the convincing victory of PGE Skra Belchatow (Poland) over Zamalek (Egypt). The result does not show the whole truth about the game because in the first and last set both teams were playing as if that was the matter of life and death and Zamalek was really close to change the fate of the game. However PGE Skra Belchatow, led by its young star Aleksandar Atanasijevic and experienced Mariusz Wlazly managed to keep their pace and prevent ambitious Egyptians from winning any set.
PGE Skra Belchatow – Zamalek 3-0 (27-25, 25-19, 28-26)
