Novara, Italy, November 9, 2015. Igor Gorgonzola NOVARA fans are thrilled about the first home game in the 2016 CEV Denizbank Champions League. The blue team will try to get the first success in the european campaign after having won four games in a row in the Italian A1 league.
The Igor Gorgonzola NOVARA mentor, Luciano Pedullà, and his “blue girls” are looking forward to their seasonal home debut in the european competition, after having lost the first game of Pool B in Istanbul to Giovanni Guidetti’s Vakifbank. The Italian vice-champions will host on wednesday night Calcit Ljubljana and both team will try to achieve their first victory in the CEV Denizbank Champions League. Bad news for the Italian team come from Caterina Bosetti: the Italian national team spiker injured her ankle during the first practice of the new week, on monday evening, and she won’t be able to join the competition on wednesday. It will be the junior team captain, Laura Masciullo, the one who will take her place for the game.
“I am sure we will have really special feelings playing a Champions League game in our city – says Igor Volley coach Luciano Pedullà – and we look forward to play such an important and exciting game. Italian clubs often consider just the national competitions, but in my opinion matching the best teams from all over Europe it’s really the best for coaches and players. We lost our first game but we showed that there is not such a big gap between us and a great team like Vakifbank is. Now, we want to get our first victory in the competition even if I am sure that Ljubljana will do its best to make it as hard as possible for us”. The Slovenian team wants its first victory as well: “We will need to play with big determination and focus from the first ball to the last one if we want to achieve a positive result which would be very important for the ranking and for our ambition to get a spot in the Playoff phase”. About the opponents from Calcit Ljubljana, Pedullà adds: “Slovenia is one of the rising volleyball countries and some players from Calcit come from the Slovenian youth and junior national teams, so I am sure that they have a good international experience”.
The Italian setter Noemi Signorile looks forward as well: “In Istanbul we showed time by time a really good volleyball and I am sure that we are going to get better and better if we keep working like we started doing. Now we have an important chance to play an important game at home and for sure we will do our best to achieve a good result. It won’t be easy: Ljubljana lost the first game as well and, like us, they want to get the best out of this second game. Champions League? It’s really something amazing when you realize that you are matching the best clubs in the world. It’s important for us to achieve a spot in the Playoff phase and we will do our best to reach our goal”.
