As the group stages draw to a close at the 2015 European Club Championships in Tours, Italian champions BC Milano (pictured) even surprised themselves as they dominated group 4 only dropping a single match in their three group ties.
Milano came into the competition as second favourites in group 4 looking to emulate their achievement of 2014 by qualifying for the quarter finals. In truth the Italians arrived in Tours with an altogether stronger team and that is without Italian number 1 men’s singles player Rosario Maddaloni who is playing in Mauritius as he attempts to qualify for the Rio Olympics.
In the first days play Milano beat both BC Zwijndrecht (BEL) and Kristiansand BK (NOR) by 5-0 score line and club President Luca Crippa recalls the conversation in their apartment after that emphatic start.
“We could not believe the start we got yesterday and we were talking about it at dinner after and our doubles player Megumi Sonoda commented that we feel like Russia.”
The Italians rounded off their group campaign with another 4-1 win over seeded team BK 1973 Deltacar Benatky n/J to book a quarter final place against runners up from group CB Oviedo.
Crippa commented “It is very big for our club to be in this position as we have shown progression each year we have come to the European Club Championships. The only problem we have is that if the gods shine on us and we somehow make a semi-final we have no home to go to as we have to leave the apartment we have rented the morning of the quarter finals as we did not expect to get so far.”
BC Chambly joined Oviedo in the quarter finals as winners of group 2 and play Deltacar Bentaky in the quarter final. Primorye Vladivostok topped group 1 with a 5-0 victory over BC Uzwil of Switzerland but were pushed hard by the Swiss champions in the top of the table clash.
Aix battle though against gutsy Dutch
In the final match of the day on the Badminton Europe TV court AIX from France consigned BC DKC of The Netherlands to a tough quarter final where the Dutch will now face top seeds Primorye after losing out to the French 5-0
The Dutch went down fighting against their seeded opposition and in the match of the day Mark Caljouw had a real opportunity to tie the match 1-1 against Indra Bagus Ade Chandra before the Milan based Indonesian finally came through in three games.
“Mark played very well and I found the first game very difficult.” Said the Indonesian. “But I just had to talk to myself and tell myself to come on and win the match for the team. He looked tired in the deciding game as I think the heat in the hall got to him”
The French went on to dominate the tie after BC DKC were unable to rally after the disappointment of the men’s singles and AIX can now look forward to a quarter final meeting with BC Uzwil of Switzerland.
To revisit all the action from court 1 on Day 1 of the European Club Championships subscribe to Badminton Europe’s YouTube channel HERE
Article by Mark Phelan. Photo by Ben Phelan for Badminton Europe LIVE in Tours.
Quarter final line up
BC Chambly Oise (FRA) V BK 1973 Deltacar Benatky n/J (CZE)
BC Milano (ITA) V CB Oviedo (ESP)
Primorye Vladivostok (RUS) V BC DKC (NED)
BC Uzwil (SUI) V AIX (FRA)