Volleyball, Champions League: Civitanova disaster, overwhelmed by Gardini’s Jastrzebski

Like a year ago, more than a year ago. Italian champion Lube Civitanova finds herself with her back to the wall after the first leg of the Champions League quarter-finals. The Polish team led by Andrea Gardini wins a 3-0 victory and “sees” the semifinal against Zaksa. Now it takes almost a miracle for Lube to overturn the table.

Civitanova-Jastrzebski 0-3 (22-25, 23-25, 19-25)

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In a week in Poland, Lube will have to win 3-0 and 3-1 and then also prevail in the golden set, to get through the round. Not impossible, but honestly difficult for a Lube who seemed in great difficulty, with all the absences and injuries, but also with the uncertainties that have emerged in the latest releases. First set and Civitanova immediately goes into crisis. The former Hadrava hammers and the Polish team flies, Civitanova swerves, misses a lot after playing with Yant and Gaby Garcia on the field, leaving Ivan Zaytsev on the bench. Jastrzebski Wegiel, on the other hand, misses very little and the score amply pays off. The team coached by Andrea Gardini has many old acquaintances from our league such as the French Toniutti, Clevenot and Boyer (Olympic champions) and the Czech Hadrava. All the sets have the same trend with Civitanova suffering the break immediately and then “no longer sees” the opponent for the rest of the fraction, if not at the end, when the result is largely compromised.

Defenses

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Under the eyes of the Olympic champion Gimbo Tamberi the Lube sinks. And while Civitanova flounders in their mistakes, Jastrzebski defends any ball, while Toniutti sorts perfect balls for his teammates. The third set is the Caporetto di Civitanova with the Poles of Gardini who are also leading for 14-6 !. Blengini calls the timeouts, but from the bench he can hardly change anything, because he has no useful men available. Gardini returns to Italy as a great protagonist (after the exoneration in Piacenza before the start of the season). A great victory that is worth double for the Poles.