Schwerin (dpa/mv) - For the third time this season, the volleyball players from SSC Palmberg Schwerin and Allianz MTV Stuttgart will face each other on Saturday (5 p.m.). The record after the two duels: The Mecklenburg team lost the Bundesliga first leg 3-0 at the champions, but won 3-2 at the defending champions in the cup semifinals. "However, Krystal Rivers was missing in this game. And she is an absolute key player. She has shown that again recently," head coach Felix Koslowski put into perspective the cup success on Friday and emphasized with a view to the renewed meeting: "Stuttgart is still the one the absolute top favourite. There is no other team that is so well manned at the top and bottom."
Koslowski left it open whether it would be a surprise if his team (3rd) beat the leader. "I haven't really thought about winning or losing yet. It's about finding a game plan on how we can neutralize Stuttgart's attacking power."
After all, both clubs compete under the condition that they were still challenged in the European Cup last Wednesday. Schwerin missed out on a surprise in the CEV Cup with a 2-3 defeat in the first leg of the playoff round at Italian top club Scandicci, while MTV took first place in the Champions League with a 3-2 win against Polish club LKS Lodz the D group. "Stuttgart played very well, we played at a high level in Scandicci," said Koslowski and added. "It will be exciting to see how both teams can bring that across to the Bundesliga on Saturday."
