Modena, Italy, September 24, 2010 – World No.2 Russia are expected to dominate their pool in the first round of the FIVB Men’s World Championship and Italian coach Daniele Bagnoli is confident to confirm their position as favorites when the action begins at Modena’s Palasport Giusepppe Panini on Saturday.

Bagnoli admitted to not knowing much about the other teams (Puerto Rico, Cameroon and Australia) and will concentrate his effort on what his Russian team can do against the opposition.

“We are being considered the favorites in this group and I hope we can show that in the court,” Bagnoli said during the press conference on Thursday afternoon at the Raffaelo Hotel in Modena.

Daniele Bagnoli (RUS): “We are being considered the favorites in this group and I hope we can show that in the court. We don’t know very much about our opponents so we are going to focus in our game. I expect to give all my players the chance to participate during the three days. I am in a particular situation because of what Modena means to me in my career as coach.”

Carlos Cardona (PUR): “We had a good result during our first participation in the World Championships four years ago and we hope to do well again. But we are in a very difficult situation because of the classification system and I don’t have my regular setter and libero. We will try our best here.”

Peter Nonnenbroich (CMR): “After twenty years we are back in the World Championships. We have worked very hard to make it and it is a great honor to represent Central Africa with our best effort. We have been playing in Europe for two months and a half and 60 percent of our players play in Europe and the other 40 percent are local.”

Russell Borgeaud (AUS): “This is our fifth participation in the World Championship and we haven’t had a lot of success in the past. We hope to do better this time. The team has been together since June and we have had preparation matches against Canada, Czech Republic and Argentina. We are happy with our preparation and the players are in good shape and spirits.”