Leon, Ngapeth, Simon, Kaziyski… who will miss out on the SuperLega final?

When you have recently won both the national cup and the league’s regular season, and especially when you can rely on athletes like Cuban-born Polish standout Wilfredo Leon, Argentinean middle blocker Sebastian Sole, American outside Matthew Anderson and Italian playmaker Simone Giannelli, you are bound to be considered the favourites. But that’s a tricky role to be in as Perugia proved in their semifinal series against Modena. In games one and three, when they also had the home-court advantage on their side, they could not cope with the pressure and lost (3-1 and 3-2). But in games two and four, when they were playing away at Modena and had their backs against the wall, they showed their real worth and won (3-1 and 3-2) to push the playoff to a game five showdown at home.