PGE Skra Belchatow - Indykpol AZS Olsztyn predictions and free betting tips [02/02/2024]

The 20th round of the PlusLiga volleyball kicks off. We'll start with a clash in Belchatow, where local team Skra hosts the club Olsztyn from the ancient northern city of Poland.

Skra Belchatow

Andrea Gardini's collective must defend its position in the top eight. Currently, it is quite shaky for Skra, as competitors are closely pressing and a couple of failures could push the team back into the second group of playoff contenders, where less prestigious clubs such as "bees" reside.

The away game of the previous round against Luk Lubin did not work out for Skra. Only in the second set did something resembling Gardini volleyballists' true potential start to emerge, but the rival played excellently and still managed not to allow the "bees" to catch up. The score (0:3) just indicates that the club from Belchatow did not engage immediately, then lost the key set and failed the third party, presumably under negative emotions.

By the time of this defeat, Skra had a series of victories, with all lower table competitors defeated, but there is still uncertainty whether Gardini's volleyball players will look effective in the playoff contenders group through the top eight. There are no questions to the Italian coach regarding the team, he is arguably making good use of the available player volume. Davida Konarski was missing in the last game due to injury, I think he will be absent against Olsztyn as well. Bartlomey Lemanski is often very good on the block, although he has not been very productive for two games in a row. In attack, Bartolomei Lipinski is very hard-working, even in the previous match with Luk Lubin, he was one of the best in Skra's line-up.

A victory at home against Olsztyn will allow Andrea Gardini's team to stay in the top eight, while a defeat could push them back, so the "bees" have ample motivation to maintain their position among the playoff contenders, where European Cup tickets are played for

Olsztyn

Again, Javier Weber's volleyball players lost (2:3) this time already to the club "Stal Nysa". The match started well for Olsztyn, but then a close set was lost with a score of (28:30) and then a decline until the fourth set when the south-western club of Poland started to fumble in attack and Daniel Plinski's players' serve stopped hitting. Still, in the decisive set, Olsztyn looked mediocre until the score was (7:7), and then started to falter because of Patrick Sshurik's services. This defeat became the 5th in a row for Javier Weber's team, moreover, this year, Olsztyn has only managed to defeat "Projekt Warszawa".

The situation needs to be rectified for the north-east club of Poland; otherwise, they may not make it into the main playoff contenders group and have to settle for the chance of winning a ticket to the Challenge Cup. The Olsztyn schedule includes a couple of tough opponents, including Skra Belchatow, but most of the teams that Javier Weber's volleyball players are due to play are within their strength level.

Olsztyn has a good squad, there's always someone to praise. In the position of a central blocker, Cezar Sapinski is powerful, working with him is Simon Jakubisak, highly praised by many Polish volleyball experts. In the attack, as always, Alan Souza is good, and Manuel Armoa sometimes replaces him, although the Argentinean does not always have effective matches. Defender Joshua Tuiniga performs well, plus there's the other attacking player, Nicolas Sherken, who isn't always brilliant, but sometimes very effective in his position.

Weber's team needs this victory over Skra Belchatow, but obtaining it will be problematic, given Olsztyn's current indicators as a whole. Nevertheless, it is not fair to consider the north-east Polish club as an underdog of this confrontation.

Head-to-head

In the 1st round, Olsztyn lost on its home ground to Skra Belchatow, even though the hosts were dubbed the favourites of the match.

Match prediction: Skra Belchatow - Olsztyn

The best bet would be the total of more than 4 sets in this game, which is expected to be evenly matched and it's conceivable that the teams could play all 5 sets.