KĘDZIERZYN KOŹLE remain unbeaten and are the victors of Pool A

With their fifth consecutive victory in Pool A Grupa Azoty KĘDZIERZYN KOŹLE have earned themselves a spot in the quarterfinals. On Wednesday they only had to fend off Fenerbahçe HDI ISTANBUL in the first set and when the Polish team had secured it, it was straight forward to a 3-0 win. PGE Skra BELCHATOW beat Lindemans AALST 3-1 earlier on the night. With that result they will finish second in Pool A for sure.

With qualifying for the finals eight teams KĘDZIERZYN KOŹLE have repeated what they achieved last year. Before the Champions League was stopped due to Covid-19 the Polish team had lost to Russian Kuzbass KEMEROVO. They will have to find out who will be facing them in this year’s quarterfinal.

• Fenerbahce had more rest before that tough game. The Turkish team on Tuesday won against Lindemans Aalst 3-0 in just 69 minutes. Grupa Azoty KĘDZIERZYN-KOŹLE played a great and exhausting game against PGE Skra BELCHATOW (3:2 in 128 minutes)
• Grupa Azoty KĘDZIERZYN-KOŹLE finished the game in completely another squad than they started the performance. Coach Nicola Grbić wanted to give a chance also for the players from the bench.
• After Wednesday’s win, Grupa Azoty KĘDZIERZYN-KOŹLE is sure about playing in the quarterfinals with 14 points.
• The top scorer of the game was Kamil Semeniuk who scored 13 points.
• Ernest Kaciczak from Grupa Azoty Kędzierzyn-Koźle had his debut in CEV Champions League during the game against Fenerbahce.

Benjamin Toniutti: “We know that yesterday we had a really important game and we won. We wanted to win today as well and we did it, so we are happy. It’s good that all the players had an opportunity to play. It’s good for the team, for the club. I hope we will finish this tournament with three wins.”

A slow start to the match for PGE Skra Belchatow, but they managed to win in four sets. Lindemans AALST gave it their all, but remain without points. The Polish side are now second in Pool A, hoping it will see them through to the quarterfinals.

The win puts PGE Skra BELCHATOW on three wins and 10 points in Pool A, which means they still have a shot at becoming group winners if Grupa Azoty KĘDZIERZYN KOŹLE loses tonight at the hands of Fenerbahçe HDI ISTANBUL. They will be following this match closely.

• Robert Milczarek, the second libero of PGE Skra is a real CEV Champions League veteran. It is his ninth season in this tournament - all of them he played for PGE Skra. He has two bronze medals (2010 and 2018) and a silver one (2012).
• Lindemans started the game really well what was a big surprise. They leaded 17-10, 22-13 and at last won the first set with a big result of 25-17.
• PGE Skra played really well in block, the Bełchatów team scored 17 points in this element.
• The top scorer of the game was Dusan Petković (16 points) who has his birthday on 27th January.

Dusan Petković, opposite of PGE Skra BELCHATOW: "It was not a perfect birthday present for me, because perfect would be if we won 3-0. But it is okay. It was not an easy game. Our opponents showed a lot of energy, positive things. In the beginning we were not focused on this game. Then we started to play our volleyball and we won. We have to give 100% tomorrow and there are no excuses. It can be the most important game of the season for us."

Simon Van De Voorde, middle blocker for Lindemans AALST: "I think we can be happy. When we see our performance yesterday and today, we were a better team tonight. We see that if we play on our level, we can do something. PGE Skra started to play better so we knew that we can lose that game, but at last we can be happy with the performance we gave today. Tomorrow we will try again. We have nothing to lose. I hope we will get our high level and we can make a surprise."