Two powerhouses of Turkish volleyball, Eczacıbaşı VitrA and Fenerbahçe Opet will face on Tuesday, November 19, at the opening game of the pool stage of CEV Champions League Volley 2020.
Competing in Pool A with Fenerbahçe Opet Istanbul, LP Salo (Finland) and Budowlani ŁÓDŹ (Poland), Eczacıbaşı VitrA İstanbul has left behind a successful month since the official start of the Turkish volleyball season in October. Having won the Spor Toto Champions Cup (Turkish Super Cup) for the second year in a row, Tigers also continue the unbeaten 9-0 run in the Turkish League.
Increasing their strength by adding great weapons like Natalia Zilio Pereira, Carli Ellen Lloyd and youthful players like Hande Baladın and Yasemin Güveli, who were raised at Eczacıbaşı Academy and went on loan to other Turkish League teams last season, Eczacıbaşı VitrA passed the first exam against Fenerbahçe Opet in the Turkish League by defeating 3-2. While this thriller has been surely added to the 2019-2020 season’s must-watch list of volleyball, the back-to-back MVP of Europe and the CEV’s 2019 Female Volleyball Player of the Year, Tijana Bošković scored a season-high 36 points in this game. Speaking of the number ‘36’, the MVP is only 36 points away to reach 500 points in her CEV Champions League career with the orange and white jersey that she has been wearing since 2015.
The Istanbul derby is definitely one of the highly anticipated games of the season. Yet it is not the first time these two teams face on the European stage. İstanbul city rivals Eczacibasi VitrA and Fenerbahçe Opet meet for the third time in the Champions League, after a double meeting in the 2016/2017 Playoffs 6. Eczacıbaşı VitrA are participating in their 17th Champions League season, third most all time. The Orange and Whites clinched their first #CLVolleyW title in 2015.
Eczacıbaşı VitrA Head Coach Marco Motta and Fenerbahçe Opet Head Coach Zoran Terzić reflect on the Match of the Week (MOTW):
Marco Motta: “We will be playing the first match of the 2020 CEV Champions League season. We played against Fenerbahçe Opet two weeks ago in the Turkish League. From playing them before this season, we are aware that the coming game against Fenerbahçe will be a difficult and competitive one.”
Zoran Terzić: “We will play our first match of the CEV Champions League against Eczacıbaşı VitrA. They are a valuable opponent and we place a lot of importance on this match. Eczacıbaşı VitrA, who can play with two more foreigner players in the CEV competitions, is a very strong team. The game will be a high quality and competitive one. I think the team which makes less mistakes will win the game.”
The MOTW will take place on Tuesday evening at 17.30 local time in Istanbul Burhan Felek Volleyball Hall. There will be live broadcast on Spor Smart (Turkish sports channel) and the CEV’s official streaming platform EuroVolley TV.
