Volleyball, Women’s Champions: Paola Egonu shines but her former team wins, the knockout however is painless

Volleyball, Women’s Champions: Allianz Vero Volley Milan-Vakifbank Istanbul 2-3

At the end of a hard-fought match until the last serve, Allianz Vero Volley Milan succumbed to two-time European champions VakifBank Istanbul in the tie-break on the sixth and final day of Pool A of the CEV Champions League. 2-3 the final score, with partials of 25-20, 25-17, 22-25, 18-25, 15-13 in favor of the Turks, who were good at nullifying the 20-point performance of Paola Egonu, the top scorer in a match that pitted her against her former team.

The match proved to be full of twists and turns, with the Turkish team able to win the first two sets before suffering the furious comeback of the team led on the sidelines by Marco Gaspari. In the final, the VakifBank, però, turned out to be more cynical and took the victory from the Italian lineup.

However, Allianz Vero Volleyball can celebrate direct qualification to the quarterfinals, thanks to five wins and only one loss in this first phase. Already decided the next opponent: it is in fact the Polish team of LKS Commercecon Lodz, in fifth place among the teams ranked first in the various Pools, just behind Allianz Vero Volley Milan. The quarterfinals will be played, with return matches, in the last ten days of February.

"It's been a beautiful battle,‖ commented coach Gaspariai official club channels.

We are very happy with the first place in the Pool because it wasn't at all obvious at the beginning, forò this match showed us that to stay at the top we cannot afford to have drops. Now we go back to the gym becauseè we have a game against Chieri".