Trento, 25 October 2019

2020 CEV Champions League, the opponents in the Pool A

Cucine Lube Civitanova (Italy)
A reigning champion club who won its second Champions League last May (the previous one has been won in 2002) thanks to the 3-1 win in the Berlin Final against the multi-detent Zenit Kazan. The game with Trentino Volley in Europe is not a news: the two teams have already faced each other in the CEV Champions League six times with these result: 3-0 in the semifinals of the 2009 edition, 2-3 and 3-0 in the Playoffs 6 of 2012, 3-0 in the semifinals of the 2016 edition, 1-3 and 2-3 in the quarterfinals of the 2018 edition - the last one played by Trentino Volley.

Fenerbahce Sk Istanbul (Turkey)
Historical club of Istanbul (main financial, cultural and industrial center of Turkey). This is the most important and renowned sport's center, with millions of fans around the world and training sessions in varied disciplines. In volleyball, the club has been a regular player only since 1976, after almost fifty years with vertical yellow-black stripes (the typical club jersey) wore only intermittently (1927-1935, 1941, 1946-1947, 1952-1971).
The sport centre has put a lot of strenght, especially in the last decade, ensuring the presence in the squad of several foreign players who had previously been for many years protagonists in the Italian championship. In the last season it has also played at the double Champion-National Cup, having four victories in both competitions in the history of the Club and granting the opponents only the Super Cup (won by Halkbank Ankara). 
After a year of absence from the European Cups, it has turned to the Champions League for the eighth time, an event in which it has never had too much luck in terms of results.
Compared to the previous season, it  replaced only one player: the Belgian crusher Klinkenberg with the French Rossard; the other prominent names for the highly confirmed technician Sordyl are the opposite hitter Ter Maat, the middle hitter Batur and the spiker Cuban crusher with German passport Hidalgo Oliva. The only surviving player of the squad that challenged Trentino Volley in the 2017 CEV Cup semifinals (one win per side between March 28 and April 1) is the free Karatas.  

Jihostroj Ceske Budejovice (Czech Republic)
It is the team of the largest city in southern Bohemia, the nerve center of the region of South Bohemia, and returns to participate at the CEV Volleyball Champions League after only one season of absence. The one that will start in December will be the tenth participation in the maximum continental tournament; in the 2010 season, it also twice played against Trentino Volley between December 2009 and January 2010 in Pool A, which then promoted the team to playoffs 12 and eliminated the Czech team directly.
The return to the CEV Champions League has been fullfilled thanks to the winning of their tenth national title after having beaten Dukla Liberec of Jan Stokr in the final in five games (3-2); this was their third title in the last six years and has enriched a prize record that also includes two Czechoslovakian national titles and five national cups. In Europe, their most prestigious continental result is the CEV Cup Final Four in 1998, closed with fourth place overall.
In order to try to figure well in the new adventure in the Champions League, the Czech club has confirmed a good part of the sextet able to win the double in their country last season; the setter is the spaniard De Amo, the opposite spiker is Krestan, the most famous middle-blocker of the team is Mach, who together with the spiker Fila were protagonists of the double match against Trentino Volley ten years ago (double win for Trentino).

Trentino Volley Srl
Press Office