First Day:
With an outstanding performance of their captain and most representative player, Natalya Mammadova, the Azeri of Rabita Baku - who had joined the CEV Champions League only this season - edged out their rivals from Italy, Scavolini Pesaro, in four sets (25:23, 25:16, 13:25, 25:14) to write history for their country. Mammadova was asked by her coach Brdjovic to seat out third set and that was the only moment where Italy's national champion showed the capacity to control the game. Azerbaijan did already have a representative in the final four of the CEV Champions League some 5 years ago but at that time Azerrail had to be content with a fourth place... This time Mammadova & Co. will certainly be able to do even better! Not to mention that with Azerrail claiming today also the return game in the semis of the GM Capital Challenge Cup, there will be an all-Azeri final there, so Azerbaijan can not ask for more.
Thousands of passionate volleyball fans had hardly waited for the final and most exciting act of the 2011 CEV Champions League and eventually their patience and loyalty were rewarded as Scavolini Pesaro and Rabita Baku started their warm-up for the first semifinal accompanied by a very special soundtrack that was actually a kind of tribute to their respective countries of origin, Italy and Azerbaijan. The girls were joined by their fans, with the Azeri proudly waving their national flags while the Italians of Pesaro were uniformly dressed in red, i.e. the corporate color of their club.
This first semifinal was also going to prolong the rivalry that had started in the prelims of the 2011 CEV Champions League as Rabita and Scavolini were drawn in Pool E and their past head-to-heads stood at 1:1, as they had both claimed their respective home games. Since then or actually quite recently a major change had somehow affected the roster of Scavolini, as American spiker Destinee Hooker quitted the team last week to fly back home and apparently get immediate surgery on her knee. Anyway, although sidelined by this absence, the Italians were nevertheless well ready to fight, as per the statements of their coach, legendary setter and two-time (1990 and 1994) world champion Paolo Tofoli.
Rabita Baku enjoyed a very good start (3:1) before a double block of Saccomani and Manzano stopped Azeri captain Mammadova to draw the count at 8 all. 20-year old Laura Saccomani was dictating the rhythm for Scavolini and she was even able to turn the score around as the Italians went up twice by one point (8:9 and 9:10). However, the general impression was that the girls were not yet playing at full speed and so the score remained extremely tight before Rabita went for the second mandatory stop with a slim margin of two points contributed by Mammadova and Starovic. Dutch lady Manon Flier missed the opportunity to level at 16 as she lost coordination and timing while spiking from the right wing and Tofoli went for his first time-out as his girls were trailing down 15:18. Flier was really struggling to find the necessary consistency and stamina, so Rabita widened the gap (21:15) and it looked like the fate of the opening set was already determined. After another short talk with their mentor, the "Colibri" - as they are known in Italy - found back the right tempo and forced the Serbian coach of Rabita, Dejan Brdjovic, to go for his first time-out. With a fault being whistled to setter Zhukova and Mammadova sending the ball a way too long from the serving line, Pesaro cut the Azeri lead (23:21) and the tie was almost there as Starovic did not control her next kill down the line for the 23:22. Kim Glass showed off some real power to contribute two set balls for Rabita and Baku went up 1:0 after narrowly missing the first opportunity to pocket the opening set.
Rabita displayed the right teamwork and dynamism also in the opening of the second set, while Pesaro was a bit harmed by a defense that was definitely not solid and hence not helping their many efforts in attack. The excellent pipe of Manon Flier was blocked by Mira Golubovic and the Azeri glories sailed away 8:5 for the first technical stop. Rabita was apparently not to stop: Mammadova and Starovic were "on", the Azeri block was always well placed while the Italians looked totally lost. Captain Martina Guiggi took the responsibility to relight the Italian hopes but it was not going to be that easy, as her side was down 12:18 and with the rally point system this is a distance you can hardly compensate. However, Manon Flier was finally scoring with the frequency she is normally used to, to make it 20:16 for Rabita but the Azeri were so self-confident that they were even playing without Mammadova, opting for Latvian Olga Ativi as their diagonal spiker. As they were about to crown their quest with success, the Italians lost again command of the operations by committing many mistakes and a net violation of Senna Usic Jogunica sealed the set for the Azeri joy (25:16).
As teams changed sides, Manon Flier was firing up her fellows by saying that "since we are here and this is a final four, we can't just lose like this" and she definitely spread that fighting spirit across her mates who played with courage and intelligence in the opening of set 3 (3:8 for Pesaro. Back to the court, Natalya Mammadova immediately scored from the back row but another freaky crosscourt of Manon Flier helped Scavolini pursue the dream for, as minimum goal, a fourth set. At an embarrassing 12:5 for Pesaro, Brdjovic called his girls back to the bench but in vain, as youngster Saccomani and Usic killed a couple of wonderful attacks to maintain that kind of fifth gear also for the next few rallies (16:7). The train was already gone for Rabita and captain Guiggi clipped the 25:13 that kept alive the chances of Pesaro to make it to the final game here in Istanbul.
The Azeri had probably decided to spare their energy for the fourth set where they immediately set the pace with Mammadova and Glass on fire (5:2). And Ukrainian-born Natalya Mammadova who - before moving to Azerbaijan and getting married there - claimed also a silver medal at the Junior European Championships with her home country was the real lethal weapon that Rabita could rely on as she bagged the decisive mini-break with three aces and Baku was hence confidently heading into the second technical time-out at 16:8. The Azeri machine never stopped scoring and their dream - shared by a country that is totally fond of Volleyball - was fulfilled as Starovic blocked an Italian attack for the final 25:14.
"We are disappointed, for sure, to lose this semifinal; whenever you go for such an important match like the one we had this afternoon, you dream of the perfect game and we definitely did not show our full potential. Many people are wondering about the chances that we could have had if Destinee (Hooker) was still with us. But you can't speculate and we had to play this game with our current forces. Manon got injured right before the start of the game and nevertheless played a good game, so she is definitely not the one to be blamed for this defeat", said Martina Guiggi.
"I am sad and angry at the same time" added Paolo Tofoli. "Sad because we have just lost a semifinal of the Champions League and angry because I am missing - and this is not our fault - a player that could have turned things around. Today we saw that one player, Mammadova, can make the difference and we were missing that player. Moreover, if you look at the stats, you can see that they scored 7-8% more of their attacks and also with their high balls they were more consistent than us, so they finally deserved to win. Moreover, as they took out Mammadova in the third set, I think they were a bit too confident and it looked like they were kidding us, but after set 3 they were forced to have her back on court. I guess they planned to rest her for the final."
"I agree with Paolo and his analysis of the game. Our middle blockers performed better than theirs, but I am not happy with the way we played. We were tense and anxious in the opening of the game, we felt the pressure of playing a semi of the Champions League and the score stayed close in the first set only because we played both a very poor volleyball. I hope for a much better performance tomorrow, even though it makes me happy that Azerbaijan qualified for the first time to the final game" concluded the coach of Rabita Baku, Dejan Brdjovic.
Meanwhile, in the second semifinal game VakifGunes defeated Fenerbahce 3:2 (19:25, 25:21, 21:25, 25:19, 15:11) and will challenge Rabita Baku in the final game.
Second Day:
After four months of exciting games and hard-fought battles, the last act of the 2011 CEV Champions League was celebrated this afternoon (Sunday, March 20) in a fully packed "Burhan Felek" Volleyball Hall and regardless of its final outcome, history was certainly going to be re-written as Azerbaijan and Turkey had both never won Europe's most elitist competition so far. A good share of the colorful fans of Fenerbahce had stayed there after the end of the classification game claimed by their heroines but they were joined also by some 700 fans of Rabita who had traveled this weekend from Baku to watch their girls possibly contributing even more joy to a country that is totally fond of this sport.
It was Volleyball at its finest, as it actually is meant to be whenever the most prestigious European trophy is at stake and the players of VakifGunes started relaxed but confident enough, still powered by the incredible motivation and stamina stemming from the sensation they had caused yesterday in the derby with Fenerbahce. On the other hand, Mammadova did not wait too long to fire up her personal show, attacking and regularly scoring from any position. However, although yesterday - as per the words of Scavolini coach Paolo Tofoli - she showed that one player can make the difference, and actually she did in the semi with the Italians, the teamwork displayed by VakifGunesTTelekom was absolutely outstanding, as it was their defense: almost no ball was touching the ground, while Nikolic, Glinka and captain Gözde Sonsirma were perfectly executing their job in attack (19:10). In its only previous participation in the final four of the Champions League, VakifGunes had finished fourth in Cannes 5 years ago but this time it seemed that the plan worked out by their Italian-born mentor Giovanni Guidetti could not have been better and more accurate. VakifGunes had full command of the operations and a splendid attack of their captain Gözde Sonsirma sealed a massive 25-13 that seemed to question and put in real danger the Azeri ambitions to bring home the cup.
VakifGune
It was a wonderful day also for Poland’s glory Malgorzata Glinka-Mogentale who had stopped playing Volleyball for 2 years, had a baby and then decided to come back this year by accepting the proposal of VakifGunes to play in Turkey's national league as well as in the CEV Champions League, a competition she had never claimed before in her already long and well decorated career. Rabita did not have any chance to turn the game around until the girls around Giovanni Guidetti started feeling some pressure right after the second technical break of set 3 as they were already glancing at the finish line of a memorable weekend. Guidetti succeeded in calming down his protégés who - after a time-out at 16:13 - booked five out of the next six rallies. Captain Gözde Sonsirma showed off all of her repertoire with a delicious tip to go for the 23:16 and she was the lady that contributed also the last point for a magical moment in the history of Volleyball here in Turkey.
Individual Awards
MVP: Malgorzata Glinka-Mogentale (VakifGunesTTelekom)
Best Blocker: Maja Poljak (VakifGunesTTelekom)
Best Libero: Gizem Guresen (VakifGunesTTelekom)
Best Receiver: Gozde Sonsirma (VakifGunesTTelekom)
Best Scorer: Jelena Nikolic (VakifGunesTTelekom)
Best Server: Natalya Mammadova (Rabita Baku)
Best Setter: Ozge Cemberci Kirdar (VakifGunesTTelekom)
Best Spiker: Manon Flier (Scavolini Pesaro)
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