Conegliano and Milan will paint a tricolor final: after the Challenge and Cev Cup, volleyball achieves a historic hat trick.
The women’s volleyball Champions League final will be Allianz Vero Volley Milano–Carraro Imoco Conegliano: a tricolor final that was missing from Berlin 2019, which certifies the supremacy of our championship. Gaspari and Santarelli’s teams defeated Fenerbahce and Eczacibasi Istanbul in the semi-finals, very tough competitors who fight in the championship on the banks of the Bosphorus, but had to surrender to the brilliant performances of Milan and Conegliano. The final will be on May 5th, ironically in Turkey (to be defined whether Istanbul or Ankara): home teams will be missing, and it will be the same match as last year’s championship final. Imoco hungry for victories as usual or Milan who will try to overturn the prediction, after having already written history? One thing is certain: the Champions League, after the Turkish period, will return to our country.
For Vero Volley, reaching this final is a historic achievement: the first in the history of the Lombard club, the result of great investments (Egonu above all, but not only: Sylla, Folie, Rettke, Castillo…) and of a team that has been fighting for national and international competitions for years. The semi-final with Fenerbahce was epic: after the home win, the away match in Istanbul proved to be particularly difficult. In front of Burhan Felek Salonu’s 7,000, they had to resort to the golden set: the Turks led by Stefano Lavarini had overturned the result of the first leg thanks to the very young Russian talent Fedoroteva (25) and the implacable Vargas (29), winning 3- 1 the regular match. In the extra set, Milan was excellent in regaining clarity and winning in the photo finish, with a great overall performance, which saw the usual Egonu shine, the French Cazaute but above all rewarded a quick recovery by Alessia Orro, victim of a bad throw only 3 days before but miraculously managed to take the field.
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For Paola Egonu this is the fifth consecutive Champions League final, with 3 different teams, and this should give an idea of how much of a player she is who shifts the balance. Until now, Cittadella’s opposite number had offered good performances, but reserved the flash of the champion in the most important moment, helping his team reach a historic final with incredible statistics (35 points!). Between the Vannaccis and the easy controversy over his earnings, between complaints and fake news, the measure of what Egonu is on the pitch has probably been lost. When I go to the market on Saturday mornings, I hear about Egonu because of the controversies surrounding her, but no one knows the rules of the sport she plays and talks about her based on the little news, often false, that she reads who knows where. Paola is a champion, one of the 3 best in the world (if not the strongest) and we must be happy that she wears the blue shirt. Because if Egonu is the one in these semi-finals, Italy at the Olympics will have no problem qualifying in Paris, but a place on the podium can be played for the Olympics.
Even if it is less newsworthy, Imoco Volley Conegliano has also secured a pass to the Champions League final. Now for the panthers winning is customary, they have an incredible list of successes, but this time in the first leg they took a big risk: they went down 0-2 in the first leg against Eczacibasi who had already eliminated Savino del Bene Scandicci, but then with great strength of a team that only Daniele Santarelli’s girls can have, they recovered and won 3-2. After that remuntada, the return to the banks of the Bosphorus was almost a formality, in which the Venetians outclassed Ferhat Akbas’ team: not even the Serbian champion Boskovic, among the opposing ranks, was able to question the excessive power of Imoco. Conegliano’s strength once again was the group: when some players were subpar, the bench managed to turn things around, as only happens in great teams. In this sense, Lanier’s contribution as a substitute was excellent in the first leg but above all coach Santarelli was once again exceptional in reading between the lines of the match. On the return, the historic group (De Gennaro, Wolosz, Plummer, Haak) showed that they know very well how these matches are played. If anyone had any doubts, the number 1 favorite remains Conegliano.
Italian women’s volleyball takes not only the Champions League, but all 3 European cups: the Igor Novara by Lorenzo Bernardi won the Cup, and the Reale Mutua Chieri by Giulio Bregoli has won the Cev Cup in these hours. An absolute domination on the European continent, which certifies the golden moment of Italian volleyball also in terms of results, as well as following and participation. The last piece will be the national team, which has not yet taken part in the party but plans to participate in a few months. After the (sporting) tragic summer of 2023, he will be able to recover with the Olympic qualifiers and above all with the Olympics themselves. Julio Velasco has a difficult task, less difficult if some of the protagonists offer the performances offered in these competitions with their respective clubs: in the meantime, with these 3 cups, including the Champions League, the church of women’s volleyball is once again at the center of the Italian village.
2024-03-21 11:11:15
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