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Eczacibasi VitrA ISTANBUL celebrate their second win against Allianz MTV STUTTGART in Pool D, following the five-set victory in Kaliningrad. Eczacibasi won against Stuttgart back in December, after a tie-break stunner in the first leg. The Turkish team repeated the result, securing victory against the German side. The result keeps Eczacibasi on top of Pool D at the start of second leg in the 4th Round.

Unsurprisingly, both teams delivered an intense spectacle right from the opening set of the match, achieving one of the highest point scores in this season of the competition. After trailing 12-17 and 16-21 behind, Stuttgart fought some points back, with Krystal Rivers stepping on the service line. Her team managed to keep things level at 23-23 and went 24-23 ahead, as the game then continued point by point. The second set began in the same stubborn struggle as the ending of the first one, but Eczacibasi eventually gained certain advantage. Stuttgart caught up yet again at the end of the set, making the score level at 22-22. This time the Turkish side did not let the odds turn against them, winning the set at 23-25. Krystal Rivers scored 27 points in the first two sets, well Eczacibasi’s star Tijana Boskovic gained 18 for her team.
The course of the match did not change in the first moments of the next set - Turkish team went ahead and Stuttgart caught up. With the help of their leading scorer Krystal Rivers Stuttgart managed a 18-13 and 20-15 lead. Led by Rivers, who seemed unstoppable today, Germany went ahead 2-1, winning the third set 25-22. Eczacibasi had no plans of bowing down, completely dominating the game in the fourth set. The point advantage, gained from the first moments of the set was soon extended as far as 10-19 and Turkish team won the set 14-25 - both teams were heading towards another tie-breaker in Pool D. Eczacibasi brought the momentum into the last set and were soon leading 4-9 after two aces served by Saliha Sahin, but Stuttgart have proved in the duration of this match to be capable of chasing a score. When the team reached 8-11, Eczacibasi were forced to call a time out, which proved effective for the Turkish team. Learning from their own mistakes in the opening set, the Turkish side did not allow Germans to recover and Eczacibasi won the set 9-15.

• Krystal Rivers was the top scorer of the match with overwhelming 40 points - including 2 aces and 38 winning spikes

• Tijana Boskovic, who was named MVP of the match, scored no less impressive 37 points - including 5 blocks and 32 winning spikes. 

• The match has also recorded one of the longest sets in the competition, when Stuttgart won the first set 32-30

• Eczacibasi keep the first in the Pool D table with 10 points

• Despite gaining a point from this game, Stuttgart remain third with 4 points and only one victory thus far

Marco Aurelio Motta, coach of Eczacibasi VitrA ISTANBUL: “Stuttgart serve very well and play well in defense, sometimes they put us in the trouble with this. When we started to play more consistently in attack and block, we started to control the game. I think it was a tough game, but in the end our power in attack defined it again. We played more consistently in 4th set, then we made fewer mistakes in the 5th set and played better in attack and we controlled again, but they played good game.”

Erik Reitsma, coach of Allianz MTV STUTTGART: “It was a great game, but unfortunately we could not finish it well, just like the last time. The first reason is they have great side-out, secondly we didn’t make enough in defense and block. At times we were very aggressive in serve, we did good job in attack, but what we need is to become better in defense to be able play better against this team.
Our goal for the upcoming games is to win them and to see how far we can go. And it is of course very tricky situation in our group, it is very difficult to advance because 2nd place is not guaranteed, we have now 4 points so far and very small hope that if we take 6 points then there is a chance, and we have to fight for it.”

Tijana Boskovic, opposite of Eczacibasi VitrA ISTANBUL:
 “I think that we opened the game very well and we had 5 or 6 points of advantage. We could have done better in reception and maybe we lost the focus a little bit. I am happy that in the end we have managed to win. We suffered a lot and didn’t show our best game, but we didn’t give up. I think that was the most important thing, also we started the tournament with the win and tomorrow and Thursday we will try even harder to win and stay first in tmahe group. It is not that much important to win the MVP of the game award but, of course, I am happy. I want to say that we played as a team and some players came from the bench and they helped a lot to us. So, I don’t want to say that I was the best by myself.”

Krystal Rivers, opposite of Allianz MTV STUTTGART:
“Eczacibasi is a great team and it was a great fight, we came out in the first set and we really pushed them a lot. And it was a great fight over the next 2 sets, they came strong in the 4th and the last one, we were able to push a lot but they responded really well.”