Champions League: Zaksa one step closer to Final Four

Yesterday Zaksa Kedzierzyn-Kozle won with Arkas Izmir 3:2 and now has two chances of advance into Final Four in Russia.

The game was full of mistakes and situation was changing in a minute. Izmir started a little better, but after that they made a lot of errors and let Zaksa score a long series of 7 points. Glenn Hoag took a short break to calm his team, but the hosts didn’t waste the previous gift and they kept this leading until the end.

The second part was better for Arkas, as they eliminated a lot of errors. Moreover, Liberman Agamez showed his power stronger than before. Despite of a good game for the half of the set, Izmir stopped their rivals with block and attack. It let them catch a tie and the game began once again.

After that, Zaksa had to push harder to win. In this game, Zaksa had to deal with a crisis of efficiency and the game was all about two players – Felipe Fonteles and Lukasz Wisniewski (young middle blocker). However, they could work with that, because this part was lucky for them. Kedzierzyn had a huge lead all the way and won 25:20.

In another set result changed from 4:1 Zaksa to 5:4 to Izmir. Two crucial players started to feel some physical problems – Pawel Zagumny (with his knee) and Liberman Agamez (with abdominal muscles). However, they both came back in the game shortly. The set was going on with emotions and balance, but in the end it was Izmir that made less mistakes and kept more of cold blood. Both teams were preparing themselves to tie break.

In this last set, Zaksa turned on another level of power. Antonin Rouzier played better than during previous parts and it helped to get a huge and safe lead from the beginning (8:3). Lukasz Wisniewski closed the game from the middle and Zaksa could take a deep breath. Now they have two chances of getting into Final Four – first the game in Izmir and (in the case of failure), “golden set” to make things clear.

Zaksa Kedzierzyn-Kozle – Arkas Izmir 3:2 (25:19, 22:25, 25:20, 22:25, 15:9)