Will the wind of change blow for CSKA Sofia in last match of league round?
Following terrible performance in the last five matches of the 2012 CEV Men’s Champions League Prelims, the Bulgarian club team CSKA Sofia is all set to try its luck in the last match of the round on Wednesday, January 18.
Bulgarian team has already dropped the chances to play in the quarter-finals in the next round. Nevertheless, the victory in last match would create an opportunity for Bulgarian fans to celebrate. The team from City of Sofia is scheduled to go against Pool
‘A’ leader Arkas IZMIR from Turkey in the next contest at “Arena Armeets” in Sofia, Bulgaria. The home team will have the competitive edge of playing under familiar conditions and with the support of local fans.
Bulgarian team entered the competition and had the first meeting with Turkish Arkas. Players around Head Coach Alexandar Popov travelled to the city of Izmir in Turkey, in order to take on the opponent. It proved to be a bitter experience for CSKA Sofia
as Turks held them off for 3-1 victory. The visiting Sofia could not penetrate the power of killing spikes and deadly aces from Turkish players and ended up losing the match in four sets.
In the next run, CSKA Sofia came across teams such as Greek Iraklis Thessaloniki and Noliko Maasiek of Belgium. Bulgarian team played two matches in front of the local audience and apparently had the competitive advantage but failed to prove its endeavours.
They constantly remained in the cold waters and dropped five matches in the row. Sofia recently finished off the fifth leg of the preliminaries by playing a four-set match against Greek Iraklis and ended up with overall 0-5 record.
Now they are scheduled to appear in the sixth match against Arkas Izmir, who have a wonderful record of 4-1. Turkish team has lost only one match in the preliminary round and firmly hold the top slot in Pool A. They are totally in shape to give another hard
knock to the Bulgarian team. They have already scored one victory against Bulgaria team in the first leg of the competition, which will serve a tool for them to put pressure on Sofia.
The roster of CSKA Sofia features most of the young and less experienced players. The team immensely missed two key players: opposite player Emilian Mirchev and setter Georgi Manchev, who left SOFIA during the winter break.
However, the mentor of Bulgarian side, Alexandar Popov, disclosed his thoughts regarding the upcoming encounter.
He said, “We would like to face Arkas at its full shine and with all of its stars. It is always a great pleasure to play against two gold medallists from the Olympics - Joâo Paulo Bravo and Kevin Hansen. We will do our best to win the match.”
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