Lube and Sada Cruzeiro claim last semifinal spots in Uberlândia

Former world champions Cucine Lube Civitanova of Italy and Sada Cruzeiro of Brazil claimed the last two spots in the semifinals of the FIVB Volleyball Men’s Club World Championship 2024 and will join Italy’s Trentino Itas and Iran’s Foolad Sirjan Iranian in the medal rounds in Uberlândia.

With pool play completed on Friday, the semifinals set to be held on Saturday at the Sabiazinho Arena were confirmed, with Pool A winners Foolad meeting Pool B runners-up Sada Cruzeiro at 13:30 local time (16:30 GMT) and the Italian Derby between Pool B winners Trentino and Pool A runners-up Lube following at 17:00 local time (20:00 GMT).

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The winners of the 2019 Club World Championship, which was also held in the state of Minas Gerais, Lube fought for their spot in the semifinals in a direct battle with African champions Al Ahly SC of Egypt. Recovered from their opening-match defeat to Foolad, the Italians were dominant, winning 3-1 (25-21, 24-26, 25-16, 25-17) to finish second in Pool A.

Bulgarian outside hitter Aleksandar Nikolov topped all scorers with 20 points (18 kills, two blocks), followed by Turkish opposite Adis Lagumdzija, who contributed another 17 points (13 kills, two blocks, two aces) for the Italian side. With 15 points, Paris Olympian outside hitter Mohamed Asran was Al Ahly’s main scorer.

“We still made a lot of mistakes today, but were able to win and accomplish our goal of making it to the semifinals,” middle blocker Marko Podraščanin reflected. “I feel the team is still a little frustrated by the defeat to Foolad, but tonight we did what we had to do. Now we’re just two steps away from the world title and we need to think well about each of them.”

Rivals in the Italian League, Lube and Trentino met less than two weeks ago in their national tournament, with the team from Civitanova Marche winning in four sets. The Trento side came out on top in three of the last five encounters, though.

Ciudad help Sada Cruzeiro advance

Unlike Lube, Sada Cruzeiro weren’t on the court on Friday and had to cheer for continental rivals Ciudad Voley of Argentina to take at least two sets of Iran’s Shahdab Yazd for them to advance in second place in Pool B. The South Americans went further, winning the match 3-1 (25-23, 25-25, 17-25, 25-18) and placing the Brazilians into the next round.

Opposite Jonas Ponzio led Ciudad’s offense with 21 points (18 kills, three blocks), while middle blocker Gustavo Maciel and outside hitter Mauro Zelayeta added ten each. Veteran opposite Amir Ghafour tallied 18 points (14 kills, three blocks, one ace) for the Iranian side.

Men's Club World Championship - Match Schedule and Results

Sada Cruzeiro and Foolad met at the 2021 edition of the Men’s Club World Championship and the Brazilians won in straight sets.

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