Champions League Men | 14 Jan 2015

UMMC in France without MIZUTANI

In the next ten days we’ll know who are the semi finalists of the 2014/15 Men`s European Champions League. First quarter final leg will be held this Thursday and Friday: FC Saarbrucken – Fakel Gazproma Orenburg (January 16^th, 19h00 CET, live and free on LAOLA1.tv), Bogoria Grodzisk Mazowiecki – Wienviertel Niederosterreich (January 16^th, 18h30 CET), Chartres ASTT – TTSC UMMC (January 16^th, 19h00 CET), AS Pontoise Cergy – Borussia Dusseldorf (January 15^th, 19h45 CET, live and free on LAOLA1.tv)

No. 1 seed, Orenburg arrived to Dusseldorf on December 10^th, having five days preparation in Borussia`s home. Leading trio of Russian champion, Dimitrij OVTCHAROV, Vladimir SAMSONOV and Alexey SMIRNOV, are familiar with this place, because they used to play in this German club. In Saarbrucken they will be clear favorite, but big home defeat against Pontoise in the last round of group stage warnings them that there is no easy games in MECL. The host side, actual ETTU Cup winner, is able to beat anybody in Joachim-Deckarm-Halle. Coach Slobodan GRUJIC hopes that Tiago APOLONIA will use his „good memories” from recent 2014 TMS European Championships in Lisbon, where the best Saarbrucken`s player overcame Dima OVTCHAROV in the final of Team’s Event (Portugal – Germany 3:1).

In Poland, five times national champion Bogoria plays against the 2008 MECL winner Niederosterreich. Tomasz REDZIMSKI`s side has never been played in the semi final, and that is a special motivation for Daniel GÓRAK, Robert FLORAS i Pawel FERTIKOWSKI, supported by Korean OH Sang Eun. Austrian side has a lot of confidence after it reached the top spot in super close Group B, overtaking such strong time like Chartres and Werder Bremen. Strong defender HOU Yingchao, Stefan FEGERL and Daniel HABESOHN will try to push their club to the place wher it used to be in Werner SCHLAGER`s time.

French champion Chartres, the runner-up of MECL 2012/13, hosts the 2011/12 MECL finalist UMMC. Host side showed in last few seasons that its trio GAO Ning, Robert GARDOS, Par GERELL is able to beat anybody in the Europe. On the other side, two times Russian champion still has no MECL title and everybody in Verkhnaya Pyshma hope that maybe this season could be that one.

“We are faced with very hard rival and as I used to say: there are no easy opponents in MECL. Even we go to France without MIZUTANI, and the fact that SHIBAEV is not fully recovered, I hope that MONTEIRO and VLASOV will be able to provide us good result”, stressed UMMC coach Tatiana KUTERGINA. The best UMMC player is not in the team because of his participation on National Championship of Japan where he will defend the title.

Two title pretenders, Pontoise and Borussia, will meet in France. Host club defends the crown, while Timo BOLL & Company will try to reach new one after three bad seasons. Both coaches, Peter FRANZ and Danny HEISTER said that chances are 50-50 %. German champion has two unbeaten players so far, Timo BOLL and Panagiotis GIONIS, while Pontoise`s players have minimum one loss each: Marcos FREITAS 4-1, WANG Jian Jun 5-2, Kristian KARLSSON 4-1.

MECL Quarter finals/1^st leg
FC Saarbrucken – Fakel Gazproma Orenburg (January 16^th, 19h00 CET)
Bogoria Grodzisk Mazowiecki – Wienviertel Niederosterreich (January 16^th, 18h30 CET)
Chartres ASTT – TTSC UMMC (January 16^th, 19h00 CET)
AS Pontoise Cergy – Borussia Dusseldorf (January 15^th, 19h45 CET)