Club World Cup, Perugia in semifinals with first place in the round

In the last match of Group B of the Men’s Club World Cup being played in Belem, Brazil, Sir Sicoma Monini Perugia goes to the semifinals by taking first place in the group with three wins out of three, one of which came in a tie-break yesterday with Osaka Bluteon. Today the Umbrians swept the Brazilians of Sada Cruzeiro 3-0, 25-19 25-23 25-21 the set partials. For Angelo Lorenzetti’s Umbrians, reigning European champions, 16 points from Kamil Semeniuk and 12 from Agustin Loser. Here are the post-match statements released on the club’s official website.

Coach Lorenzetti: “There was the will to make those five games I was talking about yesterday: maybe today the good start put us in a bit of a hurry to want to see this game closed, maybe even a bit of yesterday’s toxins, however most of the things we had to do we did; the ones we didn’t do well with continuity are the ones that in this period here we don’t do well, you can still play: yesterday we got it right, today at times, however when there was a need to come up, the guys did it, so kudos to them. And now, after this goal, the next one is to look for a medal. We clearly aim high, but we want to do it in serenity, humility, determination and bring a medal to Perugia.”

Simone Giannelli: “I’m very happy because today was not a foregone conclusion: Sada Cruzeiro is a historic team that plays very well here in Brazil and so I’m happy because we imposed our game, even in the difficult moments we stayed there, like in the second set, when we were down because of some inaccuracy on our part, however we stuck to the score, point after point, and this is already a value that we have to carry from here on always because it’s gold. We are happy to still be in the top four. We played a good, solid game, obviously we can do better in certain situations and junctures; therefore, we will try to improve because the level will rise even higher.”

Oleh Plotnytskyi: “It was good with the arena against us, good game. Some guys were a little tired after yesterday’s game, but we played a very good game. We were ready because we knew they were going to push from the beginning because they had to win to get through, otherwise they would go home, and we held well, especially in reception. Then we found our offense, wall, defense and everything started to work!”