Trento, 05 March 2019

2019 CEV Cup, the final match will be versus the Turkish team of Galatasaray

The qualification obtained yesterday night vs Olympiacos allowed Trentino Volley to appear for the fourth time in the last five years in a Final of a continental competition. The last step to pass to win the European Cup again, will be to face a Turkish team, never before in a final match. In the sixth and final round of the final board, Trentino Itas will face the Galatasaray Istanbul, never faced before, which yesterday night eliminated from the competition thanks to the golden set the Russians of Kemerovo.
The going match will be played at BLM Group Arena on March 19th, whereas the return match on March 26th in Turkey.
For the final game timetable, it will be necessary to wait for confirmation from the individual companies, in agreement with the respective national federations and the CEV. For the Club of via Trener it will be in absolute the tenth match ever against a Turkish team, considering also the five matches played against Izmir and the two against Halkbank Ankara and Fenerbahce: seven victories and two defeats.
As happened in the round of sixty-four, in the round of thirty-two, round of sixteen, quarterfinals and semi-finals, the team which, during the two matches, will have obtained the highest number of points in the ranking drawn up on the basis of the two matches played before where 3 points for the 3-0 and 3-1 victories, 2 for the 3-2 victory and 1 for the 2-3 defeat are assigned, will win the competition. The golden set will be played only in case of a tie.

The identikit of Trentino Volley’s opponent
Galatasaray, which is seen as Instanbul’s European part, represents the multi-sport team most famous of Turkey, with billions of supporters all around the world. This is a notoriety which comes from results obtained by football and basket areas more than the volleyball one, where results didn’t reflect the heavy investments made during last years.
The last of the four championships won is dated back to 1989. Galatasaray participates to CEV Cup for the ninth time of in history, thanks to the fourth place obtained at the end of last Turkish championship when it was eliminated by Izmir in the two semi-final matches. The best result obtained on an international field was the semi-final of Challenge Cup played in 2017 and lost versus Novy Urengoy. Galatasaray defeated the Croatians of Mladost Zagabria (3-0 and 3-1) in the round of thirty-two, the Czechs of Liberec (3-2 and 3-0) in the round of sixteen, the Belgians of Aalst in the quarter-finals (3-0 and 2-3) and the Russians of Kemerovo in the semi-finals to get to the final. The Turkish team is now at the third place in its national championship with eleven points of distance from the first place, occupied by Halkbank, and four points from the second one, occupied from Izmir, thanks to 15 victories in 21 played matches.
The most famous name among the ones of the roster coached by Nedin Ozbev (who coached Turkey during last Golden European League) is the one of the former Trentino Volley’s player Oleg Antonov (who played as a spiker in Trento between 2015 and 2017), who makes great high-ball trio together with the Estonian opposite Venno and the Hungarian Gergye (former player of Paris and Fredrichshafen), followed by the Canadian Duff. The rest of the starting six sees Turkish players with international experience like the setter Keskin (who played Trentino Volley in 2017 with the kit of Friedrichshafen on), the middle-blocker Ulu and the libero Cakir.

Usual starting six: Keskin (p), Venno (o), Antonov-Gergye (s), Ulu-Duff (m), Cakir (l).

Trentino Volley Srl
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