Toniutti, captain of 3rd place in the Champions League, shares his joy and criticism: "A bronze medal after a long season is great, but the organizers should reconsider the schedule" [Men's Volleyball in the European Champions League]

The third place match of the men's volleyball European Champions League was held in Lodz (Poland) on Sunday, May 18th local time, and Jastrziebuski Wenger (Poland) defeated Halkbank Ankara (Turkey) 3-1 (25-22, 26-24, 20-25, 25-18) to win the bronze medal.

After the match, we spoke with Jastrzębski Węgyel's captain and setter Benjamin Toniutti, who spoke of his joy at having overcome the nightmare of a semi-final loss, but also of the harshness of this season's schedule.

Comments from Toniutti

I'm very happy. I'm really happy. We came so close to making the final yesterday and then we lost it (2 sets up, then 3 sets down), and now we came back from that, even though it was less than 24 hours and we barely slept. You can't really sleep well after a match like yesterday. So to come back and get third place is good. It was a big win for the team.

Especially when we lost the third set after we were up 2-0, I think the whole place was like, 'Hey, not again?' And we were a little bit like, 'That nightmare's happening again,' but we all came together and I think we played great as a team.

We've had some bad luck over the last month. Yesterday Norby (Huber) was hit in the head and couldn't play, and Pivo (Popiwchak) hurt his hamstring in the warm-up. I hurt my hamstring on the last point of the second set and played pretty much on one leg from then on.

That's why today's win is so emotional. I'm really happy. I wanted to win for the players who are leaving the club at the end of the season, but also for the staff and everyone at the club, this bronze medal is worth it, especially after such a long season.

I've been playing for a long time, but this season felt like the longest season I've ever experienced. I want the management to reconsider the schedule. Many of the team finished the season "on one foot". For example, we didn't have Yuri Gradel (Zabierce), we didn't have Norby or Pivo. Semen (Semeniuk (Perugia)) didn't play (the full game). The management needs to think about this situation. The quality of volleyball at the end of the season has gone down.

*Jastrzębski Węgyel played a total of 52 games (30 in the domestic league, 8 in the PO, 3 in the cup, 1 in the Super Cup, and 10 in the Champions League) over a period of about eight months from mid-September this season. Other top teams in the Polish league played roughly the same number of games this season.

Photo: CEV