Sebastian Solé spikes a quick attack during a CEV Cup match
ph. Trabalza
Trento, 11th April 2017
Tomorrow night, on Wednesday April 12th, the first match of final of 2017 CEV Cup at PalaTrento. In the first of the two challenges that will establish the winner of this continental competition for clubs (second most important tournament after Champions League), Trentino Diatec will face the French team, Tours Vb, in a home game. The match will start at 8.30 p.m. and will be broadcasted live by Radio Dolomiti. Live streaming on the internet is available at the link www.laola1.tv.
HERE TRENTINO DIATEC After taking again the lead in the series of semi-final play-offs Scudetto against Perugia on Sunday evening, the yellow-blue team focuses its attention on 2017 CEV Cup. The double-challenge that after Tuesday and Saturday will close the participation of Trentino Volley in this European event is fascinating but at the same time it’s full of difficulties, if we consider the high level of the opponents and the second game that will be an away match. For this reason, Trentino Diatec will try to collect an important result in the first match, after winning nine out of ten games in this tournament. In the first of the two challenges the team from Trento will also have home court advantage. Preserving the unbeatability of PalaTrento (that has lasted for eleven month and a half, and twenty-one consecutive games) would mean to take a step towards the trophy; otherwise the situation would become more complicated for the yellow-blue team, as Tours would have home court advantage in the second challenge (and in the possible golden set) on Saturday April 15th. All players of Trentino Diatec will take part in the match, and trainings are scheduled for tonight and tomorrow morning at PalaTrento. There are only two yellow-blue players who haven’t take part in a final of European Cup yet: the setter Blasi and the libero Chiappa. Jan Stokr and Massimo Colaci have already won a continental trophy with Trentino Diatec in the edition of 2011 of CEV Champions League.
SIXTH EUROPEAN FINAL, THIRTIETH IN THE WHOLE HISTORY OF THE CLUB The match on Wednesday will be the beginning of the sixth European final in which Trentino Volley takes part. The closing match of this competition will be another important moment for the yellow-blue team that was able to conquer four times Club World Championship and on three occasions Champions League. This will be its thirtieth final ever; out of this total, we point out the last twenty matches played at national level: three against Piacenza in the play-offs Scudetto 2008,2009 and 2013, six against Cuneo (Coppa Italia 2010 and 2011, V-Day 2010 and 2011, SuperCoppa Italiana 2010 and 2011), six against Macerata (V-Day 2012, Coppa Italia 2012 and 2017, Supercoppa Italiana 2008, 2012 and 2013) and four against Modena (Coppa Italia 2015 and 2016, final of Scudetto 2015, final of Supercoppa Italiana). If we consider the total of matches in which a victory means to conquer a trophy, the yellow-blue team has been successful on sixteen occasions out of twenty-nine, winning seven out of nine international finals in which it has taken part. Besides the Champions (2009, 2010, 2011) we have to mention four finals of Club World Championship, all played in Doha against Belchatow (3-0 on 8th November 2009 and 3-1 on 21st December 2010), Jastrzebski (3-1 on 14th October 2011) and Cruzeiro (3-0 on 19th October 2012).
FIGURES OF TRENTINO VOLLEY IN EUROPEAN COMPETITIONS Tomorrow night Trentino Volley will play its 103rd match in European Cups (until this moment 74 in Champions League, 3 in Top Teams and 25 in CEV). Trentino Diatec has collected 83 victories and 18 defeats, the last one during this edition of the competition in Istanbul against Fenerbahce. In the two previous participation in the CEV Cup, the adventure of the yellow-blue team ended at round of 32 in the edition of 2005, after a double defeat by 3-1 against Halkbank Ankara, while in the edition of 2015 it was beaten in Mosca by Dinamo in the final at the golden set. PalaTrento will host the 47th international match of its history (one of the most important), after collecting 40 victories and 6 defeats until this moment. In the building of via Fersina French opponents have played three matches; on all occasions the match ended with a 3-0 victory of the home team (one time against Beauvais and two times against Tours).
THE OPPONENTS Tours Vb will try to win 2017 CEV Cup to end well the season, in which they are already out of the sprint for the victory in the national championship. On Friday night, the team of the coach Giampaolo Medei lost also Game 2 of the quarterfinals against Tolosa and was out from the Championship Play Off. The assault to the eight Championship (the seventh was won in 2015 when also Oleg Antonov was in the roster) was delayed at least until next season while there is still the possibility to increase the prize record with another international trophy: they already won the CEV Champions League in 2005 (with Roberto Serniotti as coach) beating the Greek team Iraklis Salonicco in the final, and they were also runner up in the same competition in 2007. This is only the third attendance in the CEV Cup in their history; before they took part in this competition only because of the elimination from the group stage of the Champions League. The best result ever in this competition is the final of this year. To reach the 2017 CEV Cup Final they beat the Slovenian team of Kamnik (3-1 and 3-2) in the round of sixty four, the Czech of Brno (3-0 and 3-1) in the round of thirty-two, the Greek team of Salonicco (3-2 and 3-1) in the round of sixteen, the Czech team of Karlovarsko in the quarterfinals (3-0 and 3-2) and the German team of Rheinmain (3-0 and 3-2). In the team coached by the Italian Giampaolo Medei (former Lube, Modena and Beauvais), the most resounding names are the Czech opposite David Konecny (who played many season and scored an huge amount of points), the experienced libero Henno (former Lube, Roma and Forlì) and the German middle blocker Collin. The roster of Tours Vb: 1. Guilermo Hernan Ruperez (setter), 2. Hubert Henno (libero), 3. Thomas Nevot (setter), 5. Quentin Jouffroy (middle blocker), 6. David Konecny (opposite), 8. Ryley Barnes (hitter), 9. Adam White (h), 10. Theo Conre (h), 11. Daniel Jansen Vandoorn (mb), 12. Philipp Collin (mb), 14. Stanislas Rabiller (h), 16. Levi Alves Cabral (h), 17. Martin Masson (l), 18. Antoine Fleury (h). Coach Giampaolo Medei.
THE FORMAT 2017 CEV Cup final is like the previous rounds, it will be played in two matches (home and away) like in the other knock-out rounds (round of sixty four, round of thirty-two, round of sixteen, quarterfinals and semifinals): the team who will win the trophy is the one who gain most points, that will be given like in the Championship: 3 points for a 3-0 or 3-1 victory, 2 points for a tie break win, 1 point for the tie break loss (golden set at 15 in case of tie – same as the Playoffs 12 of CEV Champions League). The away match will be played in France on Saturday the 15th of April at 8 p.m.
PRECEDENTS Trentino Volley and Tours Vb already played against each other four times, the matches were played in two different season in the group stage of the Champions League. The outcome is favourable to the yellow-blue for 3-1, thanks to the 3-0 victories on the 1st of November 2012 in France, and on the 5th of December 2012 and on the 2nd of December 2015 at PalaTrento, always in three sets. Last precedents is favourable to the French team, who won 3-2 an home match on the 16th of December 2015. The yellow-blue team has played six times against French teams considering also the two victories against Beauvais in the season 2009 (the one of the debut, then won in the Final Four in Prague).
THE REFEREES The match will be refereed by the Finnish Ari Jokelainen, first referee from Rovaniemi and by the Hungarian Agnes Batkai-Katona, second referee from Budapest. For both this is the first time they will direct a Trentino Volley's match.
RADIO AND INTERNET The match will be broadcast live by Radio Dolomiti, radio partner of Trentino Volley, with first live at around 8.25 p.m. On the site www.radiodolomiti.com there are all the radio frequencies of the regional network, and at the same time listen streaming to the report of the match, by clicking on the section “on air”.
Always on the Internet, the site www.laola1.tv will broadcast the live streaming video and audio of the match; in order to follow the match you have to gain access to the reserved section of the CEV official site and click http://www.laola1.tv/en-int/livestream/f1-trentino-diatec-tours-vb-len a few minutes before the start of the match.
To follow the point by point of the match the official site of CEV will be available by clicking http://cevlive.cev.lu/DV_LiveScore.aspx?ID=29235, it will also be possible to see the live score on the Trentino Volley's site www.trentinovolley.it that will also give the report set by set a few minutes after the end of each set. Updating will also be published on the yellow-blue Social Network (www.trentinovolley.it/facebook and www.trentinovolley.it/twitter).
TICKETS, PRESALES AND MERCHANDISING The match is not included in the seasonal ticket 2016/17. The subscribers had time until Thursday the 6th of March to have a preemptive right on their usual seat. The presale will be available until Wednesday at 4 p.m. to Trentino Volley's office (via Trener 2 in Trento) and Promoevent, in via Suffragio 10 in Trento, and at any time on internet by clicking http://www.vivaticket.it/ita/event/2017-cev-cup-trentino-diatec-tours/96199. The tickets will also be available on Wednesday at the box office at PalaTrento, that will open at 7.30 p.m., when it will also be possible to go in the sports hall. The box offices will remain open until the end of the second set, from that point on it will not be possible going in the PalaTrento to see the rest of the match.
Inside the sports hall, behind the North Stand, the fans will find the yellow-blue merchandising point; where there will be sold a wide range of Trentino Volley's products.
Trentino Volley Srl
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