2012 CEV Continental Cup semi-finals ready to start in Switzerland – Volleyball news
The city of Zug in Switzerland is ready to host the 2012 CEV Continental Cup Semi-finals from May 17-19.
Eight countries with two teams per gender will join the competition. In the men’s section, duos from Russia, Norway, Italy, hosts Switzerland, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Greece, and Portugal will come into stride for the final round slots.
Likewise, the women’s teams from Greece, Italy, Estonia, Poland, Latvia, Czech Republic, Sweden, and Norway will be competing for the berths in Continental Cup finals. Turkey will host the men’s final round, while Russia will provide the backdrop for final
round of women’s tournament.
Currently, the participants of the Continental Cup semi-finals have the daunting task to display better performance, in order to advance to the next stage of the tournament. Switzerland and Ukraine are likely to create a lot of buzz in the men’s tournament.
The home country will be playing with Patrick Heuscher/Jefferson Bellaguarda and Sascha Heyer/Sébastien Chevallier. Both Swiss duos have high hopes to do well in front of the local fans.
Sascha Heyer of Switzerland is regarded as the silver medallist from the 2005 FIVB World Championship and he is enjoying a top form right now. He is determined to delight the home audience with a winning feat. He was recently interviewed and he revealed
his thoughts in the following manner.
He stated, “There are no easy opponents at this level, but we can’t deny that we are the favourites.”
Speaking of the competition formula, he added, “I think this format which is similar to the Davis Cup in tennis is really cool and playing at home is just fantastic.”
However, the Swiss duos will have the toughest challenge to deal with the visiting Ukrainian tandems. Ukraine will be represented by the pairing of Sergiy Popov and Valeriy Samoday, who are the former junior world champions.
The second duo of Ukraine, which consists of Heuscher and Bellaguarda, is already confirmed for the 2012 Olympic Games. They settled for the Olympic berth through the FIVB Ranking. Hence, they will be playing under no pressure and it is likely that they
will create enough trouble for the other teams in the competition. Quite similarly, the duos from Russia and Italy are in good shape for the competition.
Nonetheless, the home heroes will be equipped with emotional support of fans and they will surely try to exploit the advantage of familiar conditions. In the women’s division, tandems from Italy and Poland will be under the spotlight.
The participating teams have already installed their bases at the Arena Platz and Lido in Zug City, which will soon turn into a battlefield. The tournament will cover its length in three flights and final results will be announced on Saturday.
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