In focus: Cucine Lube Civitanova
Currently the strongest team in Italy Cucine Lube Civitanova once again enters the battle for the Champions League final stage. Ambitious Italians for several years in a row stop one step away from the fight for the medals of the main club tournament in Europe and been stopped on the quarterfinals.
The roster of the team changed a lot in the off-season. Coach Blengini parted ways with a number of outside hitters, including Ricardo Lucarelli, Jiri Kovar, Gaetano Penna and ex-captain Osmany Juantorena. He left the team in July unexpectedly even for the head coach, when the transfer process was already complete. Coach Blengini confessed that he was surprised by this decision and wished Osmany to be pleased with the choice he made in the future. The 37-year-old volleyball player will continue his career in China.
But the Cuban Marlon Yant Herrera remained from the former line-up of the outside-hitters, and the "Balkan prodigy" 18-years old Aleksandar Nikolov also signed up with the team. This young Bulgarian, the son of Vladimir Nikolov, came to Italy straight from Long beach State Univercity, where he finished the season with Big West Conference and NCAA silver medals. Also there he became the player of the year, and during the World Cup he’ve been involved in the adult national team of Bulgaria. There, in terms of performance, he lost only to Tsvetan Sokolov.
Among the central blockers, there were also changes, the legendary Cuban Simon left the team, and Tokyo Olympic champion Barthelemy Chinenyeze came to his place. For the first time, setter Luciano De Cecco became the captain of the renewed Lube squad.
Also, the opposite Ivan Zaitsev despite all the rumours remained in the team, who does not yet have Champions League gold in his career.
Ivan Zaitsev“I was involved, as is often the case with me, in the whirlpool of market rumours, but I made a promise to Fabio Giulianelli and did not hesitate for a second. I am a Lube player and I want to win with these colors. I can't wait to put my shirt back on and give it my all!"
Source: lubevolley.it
Italian team is going to play in the Pool C. Their rivals are Tours VB (FRA), Knack Roeselare (BEL) and the last team which recently joined the group is Sports Lisboa e Benfica (POR). Portuguese team will meet Italians the first. This game in the Pool C is going to be 9th of October at 19:00 local time.
Lube's line-up has changed a lot - that's a fact, but they made a precise selection and relied on the younger generation. Let's see if the Italian team will become even stronger this season.
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