After three years, Cucine Lube Civitanova will once again play in a semifinal of the Club World Championship, this time facing Trentino Itas. At Arena Sabiazinho in Uberlândia, the team achieved a decisive 3-1 victory (25-21, 24-26, 25-16, 25-17) against the African champions - Egyptian Al Ahly. This result secured them second place in Group A with 7 points, one less than the Asian champions, Iranian Foolad Sirjan. The semifinals will be played today: the match between Foolad Sirjan and Sada Cruzeiro, second in Group B, is scheduled for 13:30 Brazilian time (18:30 Bulgarian time), while the Italian derby between Trento and Civitanova will start at 17:00 Brazilian time on the same court (22:00 Bulgarian time).
The yellow-and-blues and the red-and-whites met a few days ago at the Eurosuole Forum, where Cucine Lube won 3-1. When these two teams face each other, every match is a sporting battle with an unpredictable outcome. So far, there have been two Club World Championship derbies between them: the 2018 final in Poland, won by Trento, and the 2021 semifinal in Brazil, won by the red-and-whites.
Lube showed fighting spirit, but with insufficient precision, winning the match in four sets, squandering the opportunity for a win in the second set and complicating their lives with 28 service errors.Again, the leader was Alex Nikolov, top scorer with 20 points (55% attack efficiency and 2 blocks),followed by Lagumdzija (17 points), who recovered after a slow start, and Botolo (12 points). From the opposing team, only Asran (12) and Salah (10) reached double-digit points. The red-and-whites showed good blocking performance (13 points) and stable reception. The balance between errors and aces was negative (only 2 points from serve), and the attack play was inconsistent.
Cucine Lube Civitanova – Al Ahly SC 3-1 (25-21, 24-26, 25-16, 25-17)
CIVITANOVA: Shinenez 7, Gargulo 2, Löppky, Orduna, Bissoto (L) no, Balaso (L), Boninfante 2, Porya, Nikolov 20, Lagumdzija 17, D'Hirlich, Podrascanin 6, Botolo 12, Tenorio 1. Head Coach: Medei.
AL AHLY: Abdalla 1, Halim 5, Salah 10, Hamada 4, Ramadan (L), Elhosiny 8, Asran 12, Islam 1, Garcia (L), Hossam, Khaled, Seif Abed 2, Seoudi, Ossama no. Head Coach: Munoz Benitez
Note: set durations 30', 32', 23', 23'. Total time: 1h 48'. Civitanova: service errors 28, aces 2, blocks 13, attack efficiency 47%, reception 55% (23%). Al Ahly: service errors 19, aces 1, blocks 6, attack efficiency 39%, reception 44% (19%).
Match number 101 with Trento
To date, 100 matches have been played, with Lube having 55 wins and 45 losses.
Former players in the rosters
Marko Podrascanin played for Trento from 2020/21 to 2023/24; Gaby Garcia Fernandez was with Civitanova during 2021/22-2022/23, Nicola Pesaresi played for Civitanova in 2016/17; Kamil Rychlicki was part of Civitanova during 2019/20-2020/21.
