Sir Sicoma Monini PERUGIA are the first semi-finalist in the 2021 edition of CEV Champions League Men as they stormed out in the all-Italian derby vs Leo Shoes Modena Volley. The players around head coach Vital Heynen seized a 3-0 victory and with no problems took the Golden Set at 15-5 becoming one of the best four teams in the competition. Wilfredo Leon and his teammates outperformed the opponent mainly on the block and at the serve, becoming these two elements the key to the success. Leo Shoes Modena, on the other hand, could not keep up with the rhythm of PERUGIA losing a great opportunity after last week’s 3-0 win.
The match started with a moment of silence to honour Andrea Nannini, a legend of Modena Volley who sadly passed on March 1.

• Both teams entered the court feeling pressure and started bad on the serve. However, with the set unfolding, Perugia and Modena started a cat-and-mouse game. The players around Vital Heynen outclassed slightly the opponent on the attack and on block, and thus emerged victorious in this part that lasted 31 minutes. Key moment in the set was the comeback of Perugia with three decisive successful blocks.
• The second set started more or less with the same scenario with both PERUGIA and MODENA breathing down each other’s necks. Wilfredo Leon for the host team and Luca Vettori for the guests, were topping the charts by this time of the match with 10 and 7 points respectively. Better performance on the block (4) sealed the deal for Perugia in the second set.
• Sir Sicoma Monini PERUGIA continued controlling the game in the last set and better in all the components, closed the match in their favour. In this part, they improved their play on the serve as well.
• In the Golden Set, PERUGIA didn’t leave any chances to their opponents with Oleh Plotnytskyi leading his teammates towards the semi-finals ticket with a great performance on the serve. MODENA were struggling in these moments, not be able to record a single block or an ace.
• PREUGIA finished the match with 13 successful blocks (compared to 4 for MODENA) and 8 aces (3 for the team of Andrea Giani)
• Wilfredo Leon of the winner’s team became MVP of the Match of the Week, contributing with 24 points for the victory of his squad (2 aces and 4 blocks). Oleh Plotnytskyi added 17.
• For MODENA, Luca Vettori topped the charts with 14 points.

“I am very proud of my team and I'm proud of what we did tonight. It was not easy to play this game after last week's result. Winning three straight sets and then the golden set has been extraordinary. I think that tonight we played our game and we raised our level. We trained very hard this week and I'm glad with tonight's result ”
Ter Horst
Player of Sir Sicoma Monini Perugia

When you lose at 3-0, and then you lose the Golden Set, you have played bad. We had our chances in the first set but after that they took their chances. We knew what kind of game we could expect today but Perugia played on a very high level, they didn't make any mistakes as in the first match. The performed very well on the serve, they also have great efficiency in attack. Perugia were very well organised today, congratulations to them and good luck in the next phase!
Dragan Stankovic
Player of Leo Shoes Modena