2009/2010 CEV Indesit Champions League

On the Christmas Day for all Eastern Orthodox Churches, the Russian Volleyball family contributed to the peaceful atmosphere of such holidays with a triple victory tonight in the CEV Indesit Champions League. Zenit KAZAN cruised past the French guys of TOURS VB in fourth set in what was quite a special evening for Russian mentor Vladimir Alekno who resumed back to his former club where he excelled both as a player and as a coach. Moreover, Zarechie ODINTSOVO finally interrupted the negative trend of this season to score a convincing three-setter against the Romanian champions of Metal GALATI. Universitet BELGOROD completed that delightful night finding the right energy to seize the tie-break in the away match against ZOK RIJEKA. Surprisingly Italy’s CoprAtlantide PIACENZA lost once again in Greece against Panathinaikos and the team that finished second back in the 2007/2008 season will veritably miss the qualification for the Playoffs 12.

Results

Men
Unicaja ALMERIA (ESP) vs. CSKA SOFIA (BUL) 3:0 (25-18, 25-17, 25-22)
TOURS VB (FRA) vs. Zenit KAZAN (RUS) 1:3 (25-20, 25-27, 23-25, 23-25)
Panathinaikos ATHENS (GRE) vs. CoprAtlantide PIACENZA (ITA) 3:1 (22-25, 25-22, 29-27, 25-20)

Women
ZOK RIJEKA (CRO) vs. Universitet BELGOROD (RUS) 2:3 (18-25, 16-25, 25-15, 25-23, 11-15)
Zarechie ODINTSOVO (RUS) vs. Metal GALATI (ROU) 3:0 (25-21, 25-20, 25-21)