The Italian giant Cucine Lube Civitanova encountered no difficulties during their visit to Belgium and decisively defeated Volley Haasrode Leuven 3:0 (25:17, 25:17, 25:13) in a match that lasted only 66 minutes and was played in the hallSport Oasein Leuven.
The match took place in the absence of the Bulgarian star of the visiting team, Alex Nikolov, who is sick with the flu and did not travel with the team. Despite his absence, there was practically no intrigue. Only in the second set did the hosts manage to briefly take the lead, but after that, Lube took full control and did not relinquish the initiative until the end.
The superiority of the Italians is clearly evident from the team statistics:
| Statistic | Haasrode | Lube |
|---|---|---|
| Blocks | 4 | 11 |
| Attack Efficiency | 38% | 60% |
| Aces | 3 | 9 |
| Attack Points | 31 | 54 |
| Points from opponent's errors | 16 | 21 |
Lube dominated in all key elements of the game. The difference in blocking and serving clearly shows the higher class of the Italian team, and 60% attack efficiency is an indicator of excellent distribution and finishing of situations. An additional bonus for the visitors were the numerous errors by the Belgians, which simplified their task.
Individually, the most effective player for the winners was Eric Loeppky with 14 points. Porya (Iran) added 10, and the Belgian Wout D'Heer finished with the same total, distinguishing himself with an impressive 5 blocks against his compatriots.
For the hosts, the only volleyball player with a double-digit score was Gil Hofmans with 12 points.
Lube demonstrated that it has a sufficiently deep and quality bench and, even without Alex Nikolov, remains a serious factor that is difficult to stop by teams of a similar rank.
