The Bulgarian champion Maritsa (Plovdiv) will play its first official match for 2024. The team hosts the Italian Savino Del Bene (Scandicci) in a match of the fifth round in the group stage of the Champions League. The match starts in the Kolodrum Hall on January 10 (Wednesday), at 7:00 p.m. Bulgarian time.

The Yellow-Blues are in Group B of the Champions League with the Turkish Eczacibasi Dynavit (Istanbul), the Italian Savino Del Bene (Scandicci) and the Polish Vasas Óbuda (Budapest).

For Maritsa, this will be the first match of the year, and Scandicci won on January 6 in a match with the Italian elite UYBA (Busto Arsizio) with a 3:1 game. The team is third with 38 points in the championship.

Maritsa last played in the championship at the end of November against Hector (Sofia) and won the game 3:0. The Maritsa Team are first in the championship without a loss. Otherwise, Maritsa's last official match was on December 15 – the semi-final for the Bulgarian Cup against Slavia (Sofia) as a guest, which was won with a 3:0 game. The team qualified for its 13th final in the tournament, which will be on January 27 in Sofia vs. CSKA (Sofia).

Some of the biggest volleyball stars play in the team. The team has stars such as the Chinese Ting Zhu, the Serbian Maja Ognjenovic , the American Haley Washington, the Brazilian Ana Carolina Da Silva, the Belgian Brit Herbots , the Italian Ekaterina Antropova and others.

In the first match between the two teams, Scandicci won in Italy with a 3:0 game.

In their last matches of the group, Maritsa lost as a guest of the Turkish giants Eczacibasi, and Scandicci defeated Vasas.

In the other group match also on January 10, but from 8:00 p.m. Bulgarian time. Vasas is the host of Eczacibasi.

In the standings, Skandicci is the leader with 12 points, Eczacibasi is second with 9 points, Maritsa is in third place with 2 points, and Vasas is in the last position with one point.

The Italian women are visiting Plovdiv for the first time.

Maritsa is playing for the fifth time in the groups of the Champions League against a Turkish team.

The match will be number 63 for Maritsa in the European club tournaments.

The match will be broadcast live on Max Sport 1, as well as online on EuroVolleyTV .

Tickets for the match
Maritsa - Savino Del Bene as a Facebook event
EuroVolleyTV online (subscription required)
Champions League - Group E - schedule, results, standings

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For more information:

Website of the hall "Kolodrum Plovdiv": https://kolodrumplovdiv.com/

Website of VC Maritsa (Plovdiv, Bulgaria) https://volleymaritza.bg/

European Volleyball Confederation (CEV): https://www.cev.eu/