Sibiu, Romania, December 11, 2020. C.S.M. Volei Alba BLAJ reached the semi-finals of the women’s Challenge Cup, after recording two clear victories in the ‘bubble tournament’ the Romanians hosted earlier this week in Sibiu. The Romanian champions did not leave any chance to their opponents from the 8th and quarterfinals and they have easily progressed to the next-to-last stage of the competition.
In the first match of the tournament, held on Wednesday, C.S.M. Volei Alba BLAJ defeated the Spanish team of Sanaya Libby’s LA LAGUNA, who had travelled to Sibiu without a few of their starting players due to the coronavirus. The hosts stormed to a comprehensive 3-0 (25-19, 25-10, 25-22) victory. In Thursday’s match, scheduled for the quarterfinals, the Romanian champions beat the young Czech team of VK PROSTEJOV by an even more impressive score-line (25-14, 25-14, 25-6) and qualified for the semi-finals of the competition.
This is the third time in the last four years that BLAJ have made it to the semis of a European competition, after previously achieving this feat in the Champions League (2018) and the CEV Cup (2019). To qualify for the Challenge Cup final, the Romanians will now have to edge past their Hungarian neighbours of 1. MCM-Diamant KAPOSVAR.
Darko Zakoč, head coach of C.S.M. Volei Alba BLAJ: “I am glad that my team approached the two matches with so much focus and that we qualified for the semi-finals. We have respected our status of pre-favourites and we want to win the Challenge Cup. It is an unusual situation this year and I think we all feel it. I want to dedicate this qualification to our wonderful fans, who encouraged us from home - and whose absence we all miss. We hope to stay as focused as we were this week and get the best possible results in this atypical season.”
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