Luxembourg, January 23, 2019. Wednesday will be the bussiest day of Leg 3 of the pool phase of 2019 CEV Volleyball Champions League for women. Beziers VB, Allianz MTV STUTTGART, Budowlani LODZ, Savino Del Bene SCANDICCI and Fenerbahce Opet ISTANBUL will seek to use their home court advantage to earn some extra points for the pool standings.
Allianz MTV STUTTGART (GER) vs. Maritza PLOVDIV (BUL)
• The hosts, the current leaders of the German Bundesliga, have a demanding schedule of six matches in 19 days in January. However, they have been enjoying an impressive streak this far with 15 wins in as many matches in national competitions and only six sets lost.
• In the #CLVolleyW, Allianz MTV STUTTGART have a record of four wins and two losses (including the early rounds) whereas the Bulgarian champions Maritza have lost two matches in a row in the pool.
• Opposite Krystal Rivers of Allianz MTV STUTTGART is the second best scorer in the CL with an average of 4.1 points per set, following Jovana Brakocevic Canzian (Budowlani LODZ) with 5.76 points per set. Miroslava Paskova, as the best scorer from Maritza, is currently in 26th place with 2.67 points per set.
• Maritza’s Canadian middle blocker Jennifer Cross played for Germany’s DRESDNER SC from 2015 to 2017.
Giannis Athanasopoulos, head coach of Allianz MTV STUTTGART: “Maritza PLOVDIV is a very good team and we need to play at a high level if we want to win. Against BEZIERS VB, they did not have their middle blocker Dimitrova, who is an extremely important player for them and Kathleen Weiss had been there for just a few days. Right now, they bound much better as a team and they play much better than they did at the start of the season. I expect a very difficult game and I hope our fans will come to support us, because they are our seventh player on the court.”
Kim Renkema, Sports Director of Allianz MTV STUTTGART: “This is going to be a very exciting matchup. Maritza are not the Bulgarian champions for nothing. We want to win, because that would be a good omen for us on our path to try to reach the quarterfinals. We have to be much focused and have to start very concentrated, just like we did in all other CL matches.”
Ivan Petkov, head coach of Maritza PLOVDIV: “We are in a much better shape than at the beginning of the season. We play a total different Volleyball now. Therefore, I hope for our first victory in the Champions League.”
Kathleen Weiss, player of Maritza: “I am playing abroad now for my eleventh season and I am very excited, because it is the first time I come with my team to play in Germany. We had a long break with only practice and sparring. Our last match was shortly before Christmas, so I am eager to go out on the court and play again.”
The match is broadcasted live on SWR Sport and stored in the SWR Mediathek for additonal seven days for re-watching.
