Betim, Brazil, December 7, 2019 – Cucine Lube Civitanova advanced to its third-straight FIVB Volleyball Men’s Club World Championship gold medal match as the Italians posted a 3-0 (25-15, 25-17, 25-22) semifinal win over Qatar’s Al-Rayyan Sports Club on Saturday at the Ginasio Poliesportivo Divino Braga, in Betim, Brazil.
Cucine Lube Civitanova’s outside hitter Osmany Juantorena: “Winning the Club World Championship is not an obsession for us, but it’s a title the club has never won, so there would obviously be a special flavor if we did it tomorrow. Unfortunately we lost the last two finals and we’ll bring everything we have to win this time. But Sada Cruzeiro is a good team with great players and we know this match won’t be anything like the preliminary round match. They’ll certainly play better and we need to be ready for it.”
Cucine Lube Civitanova’s setter Bruno Rezende: “Sada Cruzeiro has been playing really well and we know they’re even stronger when they play at home. The key for us is to be aggressive from the beginning, keep our intensity level as high as possible and match their volume. We did that for most of the time today, although our focus wasn’t the same in the third set. It was good that we managed to win that set too so we got some more time to rest before the final.”
Cucine Lube Civitanova’s opposite Kamil Rychlicki: “I’m very happy that we won, but this was just the semifinal. We were the favorites, but we had to prove it on the court. Al-Rayyan played very well, especially in the third set. Tomorrow is the big game. It’s going to be a nice atmosphere and we’ll be ready.”
Al-Rayyan Sports Club’s head coach Carlos Schwanke: “Our focus here was to learn. We thought we should come to get more experience at this level and see firsthand what we need to do to get to this level. We need to improve on our human material to be able to play against the best teams in the world. Our main struggle was receiving as all these teams serve at a very consistent level.”