Aluron Virtu Warta Zawiercie - Indykpol AZS Olsztyn predictions and free betting tips [13/01/2024]

In the 16th round of the Polish Plus League, an interesting game is set to be held in "Osir II" sports hall. The club "Zawiercie", currently among the top three in the regular season, will face off against "Olsztyn" which has notably deteriorated its results, dropping to the 8th place in the table. 

Zawiercie

The club from southern Poland is having a good season on two fronts. Not only is "Zawiercie" holding a top-three spot in the Plus League, they are also doing remarkably well in the CEV Cup, reaching the 1/8-finals and already taking a significant step toward the next round.

In the new year, Michal Winiarski's volleyball players have played 3 games and achieved confident victories in all of them. In the country's championship, they outplayed "Kedzierzyn-Kozle" away and "Stal Nysa" at home, and were then easily superior to "Milan" in the 1st game of a double confrontation, which took place in Poland.

The team "Zawiercie" has a fairly strong lineup; at almost every position strong volleyball players compete within the standards of the Plus League. The MVP of the match with "Milan" was forward Karol Butryn, who is frequently praised by the Polish press and rightfully so. Defensively, effective action is provided by Miguel Tavares Rodrigues, whose performance index is consistently high, and he is often highlighted as one of the key players in team "Zawiercie".

The match against "Olsztyn" might not go as smoothly as Winiarski's players would like. Yes, the opponent has some issues with its results, but it's important to understand that "Zawiercie" is under the considerable pressure of this series of eight victories, and therefore there is a high probability of a slipup in any match. 

Olsztyn

The northern club of Plus League unexpectedly started struggling, despite all the initial compliments about "Olsztyn" being well-deserved. The charges of Javier Weber began losing to direct competitors or teams from the lower part of the table.

For example, in the last round, "Olsztyn" lost to "Slepsk Suwalki" away with a score (0:3), although before that they had beaten "Project Warsaw" at their own ground with the same numbers on the scoreboard, but in their favour. It's clear that Javier Weber's problems are related to defence and the overall rhythm the team is in, considering its psychological slump.

We still highlight Simon Yakubishek in the "Olsztyn" lineup - a central blocker who almost regularly scores points in his position. Alan Souza has excellent stats as an attacking volleyball player, he is useful in each and every match of this season.

"Olsztyn" needs to catch up, otherwise, they may fall into the 2nd group of playoff contenders where there's no motivation apart from securing a modest tournament - Challenge Cup. Probably, they won't reach the CEV Cup, but making the playoffs while being among the top eight is quite feasible for Weber's team.

Previous meetings

In the 1st round, "Olsztyn" outplayed "Zawiercie" (3:1), with all winning rounds being won after the score 24:24 - the starting set was conceded by Weber's volleyball players.

Match forecast: Zawiercie - 

Olsztyn

Olsztyn is having problems with results and Zawiercie is not the kind of opponent that can be easily outplayed, especially for the second time in the current season. I'll bet on the handicap1 by sets (-2,5) in the match, I think this home game won't be a problem for Michal Winiarski's volleyball players and the score will be 3:0 sets in their favour.