The countdown has begun: in exactly one week the curtain will rise on the Champions League Final Four, scheduled at the Atlas Arena in Łódź from 16 to 18 May.
And next Friday, Sir Sicoma Monini Perugia will take to the field in the first of the two semifinals, with the Turkish team Halkbank Ankara. Kick-off is at 20:00.
The Block Devils are studying their opponent, already met in the group stage.
However, the Turkish team is not the same as in that phase of the season: in the first Pool D match, Sir Sicoma Monini Perugia had won at home 3-0, but already in the return match at the Pala Barton Energy the Turkish team had changed in its structure, with the addition of the Cuban spiker naturalized Brazilian and well-known face of the Italian championship Yoandi Leal, who arrived to strengthen the battery of attackers. Furthermore, the team will arrive at the Łódź meeting with coach Rado Stoytchev on the bench, who arrived to replace Igor Kolakovic at the beginning of April: a coach who knows Italian volleyball well.
The team’s key players, diagonally opposite Micah Ma’A, are opposite hitter Marek Sotola, who in the final match of the group stage in Perugia was the best scorer for the Turkish team with 18 points (while the best scorer of the match was the opposite hitter for the Bianconeri Wassim Ben Tara with 23 points). In the spikers department, in addition to Leal, attention is focused on Dick Kooy, who in the match at PalaBarton Energy had finished with 16 points, 2 blocks and 2 aces.
