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Berlin (dpa) - The trip to Kazan was anything but carefree with the Berlin Volleys.

On Monday, the capitals went to the second half of the volleyball Champions League and manager Kaweh Niroomand complained: "We have lost the ease that we had in the previous season."

These are the last two group games in the premier class, the opponent on Tuesday (5:00 p.m. CET) is Volley Ljubljana, on Wednesday (2:00 p.m.) the Berliners will play against Zenit Kazan.

"The game against Ljubljana is already a final for us," said Niroomand.

The BR Volleys are speculating on qualifying behind the supposedly overpowering team from Kazan as one of the three best runners-up from the five preliminary round groups for the quarter-finals.

The Berliners have nine points thanks to the 3-0 win against Ljubljana in the first round tournament in Berlin in December and the two victories against Poland's representative Jastrzebski Wegiel, who cannot take part due to the corona.

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At the dress rehearsal for the Champions League double, however, the volleys made a slip with the 2: 3 in Frankfurt.

"We had a lot of sand in the machine," said Niroomand: "Nobody takes on the leadership role, everyone is too busy with themselves."

Such a defeat should not happen.

In setter Sergej Grankin and outside attacker Samuel Tuia, two other pillars of the team are still not in rhythm after long injury breaks.

"Tuia is still missing the explosiveness and Grankin's passes became more and more imprecise in Frankfurt as the game continued," said Niroomand.

He could only hope that in Kazan “our experienced players show more concentration and a different level of aggressiveness”.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210208-99-346983 / 2

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