#ChallengeCup: Belgorod destroy Monza in rematch of finals to complete their collection of European titles!

What a match! Yesterday Belogorie Belgorod conquered the 2019 CEV Volleyball Challenge Cup for the first time in the club history.
The Russian champions of Belogorie Belgorod prevented another upsetting outcome in the Challenge Cup finals, the third Europan Cup tournament of importance, as they destroy Vero Volley Monza in the second leg match at the home court: 3-0 (27:25, 25:19, 25:19). In this way, the russian side annulled the five-set defeat from the first match played in Italy.

By beating European cup rookies Monza, Belogorie completed their collection of trophies in CEV competitions, adding the Challenge Cup crown to three Champions League and two CEV Cup titles. This is also the first-ever European club trophy for Slobodan Kovač in the role of a head coach. In his playing career, he was a one-time Olympic and EuroVolley winner with Serbia national team!

At Belogorie’s Sports Palace Kosmos, in front of 5,000 spectators, Denis Zemchenok had a good performance with 17 points and Aleksandr Gutsalyuk added four kill blocks for the winning side. Iranian opposite Amir Ghafour scored 13 points for Monza (although he was unfairly replaced in the third set).

Slobodan Kovac, head coach of Belogorie BELGOROD: “The result of the first match in Italy was quite good for us. We knew that we would have to pressure the opponent with our service. Finally, it turns out that our service helped us a lot. We managed to keep the Italian reception away from the net, and therefore we were good at blocking. Congratulations to all of our players who showed great Volleyball tonight and won one more cup for this club.”

Paul Buchegger, player of Vero Volley MONZA, gold medal winner and MVP of last year’s finals with Bunge RAVENNA: “Unfortunately, we just played badly in attack and did not really get into the game. The block defense did work, but they put us under much pressure with the service. As a result, we could not play our game in attack. They had a real home advantage today with a cool crowd. Unfortunately, it was not enough this time but it was clear that it would be a tough game.”

Thomas Beretta, middle blocker and captain of Vero Volley MONZA: “We missed a few things tonight. They immediately started with the right motivation to win this game, and this did not quite work as much for us. The first set was the only one where we fought back. Afterwards, we lost something. Congratulations to them: they deserve this victory tonight. We wanted to bring the cup home and we believed in our chances, but it was not enough.”

2019 CEV Volleyball Challenge Cup – finals:
First leg:
Vero Volley Monza – Belogorie Belgorod 3-2 (29:27, 22:25, 25:23, 32:34, 15:12) – Photogallery and Recap .

Second leg:
Belogorie Belgorod – Vero Volley Monza 3-0 (27:25, 25:19, 25:19)
Belogorie Belgorod: Obmochaev (L), Perrin 12, Petric 8, Semyshev 0, Tetyukhin 0, Poroshin 1, Safonov 7, Zemchenok 17, Gutsalyuk 8, Golubev (L). N.E. Bagrey, Khanipov, Sidenko, Maximenko. Coach. Kovac.
Vero Volley Monza: Dzavoronok 3, Orduna 0, Galliani 0, Rizzo (L), Ghafour 13, Botto 0, Yosifov 9, Beretta 4, Giannotti 0, Plotnytskyi 8, Buchegger 4. N.E. Buti, Calligaro, Arasomwan. Coach. Soli.

SOURCE AND LAST TWO PHOTOS: CEV.