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Piacenza looking for redemption for the league defeat

Even though they only made some slight changes, Piacenza started the championship badly and they got an unexpected defeat. They have a chance to make up for that against the Slovenians who have come to gather experience

Piacenza are coming to the Champions League adventure after winning the CEV Cup where they had all 12 wins and deservedly won the cup. The team hasn't changed much and all the players from the initial line-up are still in the club. The only important changes are the middle blocker Holt and the receiver Maruotti, but the replacements have been brought in, Kaliberda and Le Roux, who are quality players. The club expectations are high. They want to win the national championship and then the Cup and the Champions League after that.

However, they didn't start well and they lost in the first round of the championship in an away match against the new first league club Citta Di Castello with 3-1 (28-26, 18-25, 25-13, 25-23). They got destroyed by Van Walle who scored 31 points and he shook them up right at the beginning of the season. Coach Monti started the match without Fei and captain Zlatanov. He sent on the field the setter De Cecco, the opposite Vettori, the receivers Papi and Kaliberda, the middle blockers Simon and Le Roux and the libero Marra. In spite of only a few changes on the team, it was clear that they are not on top of their game and they still need to play some more matches together. After losing the first set, Monti pulled out the indisposed Vettori and replaced him with Fei which resulted in a much better playing in the second set. Later on he tried to play with Tencati and Zlatanov, but that just wasn't Piacenza's night and the away team won.

- We started the match slowly. It was as if we were scared, whereas our opponents were aggressive and determined. I was most worried about the big decline after winning the second set - said coach Monti discontentedly. 

ACH started the new season with young players and without the last season's best players Sket, Sidibe, Lewis and Kovacevic. They are focused on the national championship and the Central European League, whereas in the Champions League they will only be gathering experience.

They've played two matches until now, both in the Central European League, and they had one win and one defeat. They outplayed Chemes, whereas Posojilnica beat them with 3-2 (17-25, 23-25, 25-20, 25-22, 16-14). They had a 2-0 lead in that match and 7-2 in the second set, but that wasn't enough for a win. Cuk scored 28 and the only other player with a double-digit score was Flajs who scored 13 points.

- We were led by Cuk in the first two sets, but when his play started to go down, there was no one to replace him. It is hard when the play depends on a single player - said coach Slabe and commented on the match against Piacenza:

- Piacenza have the players who are more experienced than any other team's players. Fei, Papi, Zlatanov and even the newcomer Kaliberda have the experience of playing in different competitions. We need to go to Piacenza with a lot of courage. We need to play men's volleyball and we can't get scared. We have to win against ourselves and be completely disciplined. Our line-up is going to be complete only in three weeks and our best matches are yet to come.

- We want to show are best in front of the Italian audience. We are not the favorites for going through the group phase, but I hope that we are going to mess up someone's plans - said captain Flajs, while Mitja Plesko added:

- Our motivation is going to be the highest yet and I hope that our gameplay is going to that way too. I hope we won't burn out because we want to show what we've got so badly. This is going to be an extremely tough match.

Today's game should be a cat-and-mouse story. Piacenza haven't changed much, they only reinforced their ranks with Kalider and Le Roux. They suffered a shocking defeat against Citta Di Castello but they are not as weak as the odds would suggest. In addition, this game is even more important in terms of regaining confidence. The club state that they will not take this game lightly, despite the fact that the are touted as the favorites, and they are ready for ACH. Some Piacenza's players have more experience than the entire Slovenian team. Captain Zlatanov said that they will go for it from the start. The Slovenians have rejuvenated their team this year, because of financial problems. It is also being said that they haven't gotten their salaries in a while, but this is less important at the moment. As they are a young and inexperienced team, their talk ahead of this game revolves around them not wanting to burn themselves in this game, as they are here to gather experience. The stake would be higher if this was in mid-season, but I still expect Piacenza to take things seriously from the start, so this handicap is definitely worth taking.