Trento, 18 December 2019

On Thursday the 2020 CEV Champions League will be back at the BLM Group Arena

The CEV Volleyball Champions League 2020 will be back on the stage. On Thursday December 19, just one week after the last match, there will be the third day of pool A in the Main phase of the most important continental club show. Trentino Itas will play against the Czechs of Jihostroj Ceske Budejovice. The match will start at 8:30 p.m. You can find it live on Radio Dolomiti and DAZN.
HERE TRENTINO ITAS after the victory over the Fenerbahce, the Gialloblù are fighting for another positive result – the aim is to end the first part of the match being at the top of the ranking.
“This is a really important match, because we are going to face a team that has got our same position in the ranking: it won at the tie break in Istanbul during the opening round – said the coach Angelo Lorenzetti -. Having the victory over the Turkish is not easy, we got it last Thursday; all of this confirms the fact that Ceske Budejovice is obviously a good team, directed by the setter De Amo, who is able to maintain the ball pace steady. Also during the break point phase, we must fear the Czechs, moreover in rotations, where they have a solid block and the hitters jump”.
The coach from Marche has at his disposal the whole roster with its thirteen players, who started again to train on Tuesday afternoon at the BLM Group Arena. They will complete their preparation this night, and also on Thursday morning. The match with Jihostroj will be the 126th European one in Trentino Volley history and the 86th in Champions League - in which it won 67 times. There are only five home-defeats out of 38 played matches at the BLM Group Arena.
IN PURSUIT OF THE NINTH CONSECUTIVE VICTORY ON INTERNATIONAL FIELD IN THE YEAR 2019 Under these circumstances, the Itas Trentino will have one more reason to look for victory: the aim is to end the 2019 year without a defeat on international field. During the last 12 months, the Gialloblù Company won all matches played in the European Cups: 8 out of 8 during 6 matches in CEV Cup 2019, and another victory last week during the CEV Champions League 2020. If we consider also the five victories in Poland in the World Club 2018, the victories are 13 in total. The last international defeat happened on April 12, 2018 (at the tie break against Lube in the Playoff match 6, Champions League).
THE OPPONENTS Jihostroj Ceske Budejovice comes back in Trento after 10 years (the last match dates back to December 10, 2019). The team showed to be at a good level to play this Champions League. The victory in Istanbul in the first round and their 1-3 defeat of last Thursday against the Cucine Lube, showed how competitive this team is: after just one season off, it returned to play in the maximum Continental Championship Club. This one will be the 10th participation in Champions League for them. This happened thanks to the victory of the tenth national title, where they got over the Dukla Liberek of Jan Stokr in just 5 matches (3-2). The third title won in the last six years enriched a notice board that includes two Czechoslovak titles and five national cups. In Europe the most prestigious continental result is represented by the participation at Final Four of the CEV Cup in 1998, ended with the 4th place in the ranking. The Czech club showed that a good part of the sextet was able to win the double last season; the setter is the Spanish De Amo, the opposite hitter is Krestan (already scored 36 times in the first two games); the most famous middle blocker is Mach, who together with the spiker Fila is protagonist of the double match played ten years ago against Trentino Volley. In the 2019/20 Czech Extraliga Ceske Budejovice is currently second in the standings with nine wins and twenty-six points collected in the first thirteen games. Last Saturday, however, they lost the home match at the tie break against league leaders Karlovarsko. Jihostroj Ceske Budejovice squad: 1. Martin Mechkarov (OH), 3. Radek Mach (MB), 4. Filip Krestan (OPP), 5. Matey Koranda (OH), 7. Petr Michalek (OH), 8. Peter Ondrovic (MB), 9. Onderj Piskacek (S), 10. Miguel Angel De Amo Fernandez Echevarria (S), 11. Martin Krystof (L), 12. Valerii Todua (MB), 13. Tomas Fila (OH), 14. Martin Jindra (OH), 17. Marek Sotola (OPP), 19. Marek Zmrhal (OH). Coach Rene Dvorak.

POOL A UPDATES: After the first two rounds, three teams are at the top of the standings with a victory (first discriminant to order the standings): Ceske Budejovice, Civitanova and Trento, with the latter two, however, who have played only one match and will recover the match that will put them face to face in the Marche on January 26th. This Thursday Fenerbahce-Cucine Lube will be played in Istanbul at 3 pm. The winner of the pool will enter the quarter-finals of the tournament while the second-placed team must be among the best three second-placed teams of all five groups to do so.
PREVIOUS MEETINGS: Trentino Volley and Ceske Budejovice have only played two official matches against each other, those played in the 2010 CEV Champions League, competition won by our team in the Final Four in Lodz. The two clubs faced off in the group stage and Trento won both matches: 3-0 at home on December 10th 2009, 3-1 in the Czech Republic on January 13th 2010. Jihostroj is not the only opponent of the Czech Republic faced in Trentino Volley's twenty-year history: on November 12th 2004 it also played against Vavex Pribram, winning 3-0 in Odense (Denmark) in the qualifying phase of the 2015 CEV Cup.
REFEREES: The match will be directed by Igor Porvaznik, first Slovak referee from Vysne Hagy, and Serbian Aleksandar Petrovic, second referee from Uzice. Only Porvaznik refereed previous Trentino Volley matches, on December 17th 2008 in Vienna (tie break win) and October 25th 2011 in Belgrade (3-0 win versus Partizan).
RADIO AND INTERNET COVERAGE: The match will be broadcast live by Radio Dolomiti, media partner of Trentino Volley, starting at about 8.25 pm. All the frequencies for listening to the regional network are available on the website www.radiodolomiti.com, where you can also listen to the radio commentary in streaming, by accessing the "On Air" section.
You can follow the match on DAZN, a live streaming and on-demand platform available on a wide range of Internet-connected devices, including Smart TVs, PCs, smartphones, tablets and game consoles. DAZN requires registration and offers the first month of free trial; for each account, you can associate up to six devices, two of which can be used simultaneously.
To follow the point to point updates of the match you can instead consult the official CEV website at http://cevlive.cev.eu/DV_LiveScore.aspx?ID=37539, which will provide the live score, or that of Trentino Volley www.trentinovolley.it which will also offer the set by set report a few minutes after the conclusion of each partial. We will always keep you up to date through our social media (www.trentinovolley.it/facebook www.trentinovolley.it/instagram and www.trentinovolley.it/twitter).
TICKETS AND MERCHANDISING The match is included in the subscription. Ticket pre-sale is active until 5 pm on Thursday at the HQ of Trentino Volley in via Trener 2, at the Promoevent premises, in via Suffragio 10 in Trento, and at any time on the internet by clicking on www.vivaticket.it/ita/event/trentino-itas-ceske-budejovice/144264. The BLM Group Arena ticket offices will be available from 7.30 pm, exactly when the entrances to the building will be opened.
Behind the long stand on the north side, fans will find at their disposal our merchandising point; on sale a wide range of Trentino Volley items.

 

Trentino Volley Srl
Press Office