Trento, 28 September 2020

Tuesday at the BLM Group Arena, 2021 CEV Champions League

The Giallo-blù team immediately back on the field to kick off the 2021 CEV Champions League; Tuesday 29 September at the BLM Group Arena the three days of competitions will start, valid for Pool F of the first preliminary round of the most important continental club event, which Trentino Volley will play thanks to the wild card granted by the European Confederation. The Giallo-blù players will make their debut in the tournament within friendly walls, facing the English players of IBB Polonia London in the first of the three game rounds scheduled in Trento in the next three days and which will assign only one place for the second preliminary round. Kick-off set at 20.30: live on Radio Dolomiti and www.eurovolley.tv.
TRENTINO ITAS A little more than seven months after the last one (away game to Ceske Budejovice), the Via Trener club returns to perform internationally in the same competition, the Champions League, but this time starting from the preliminaries. To obtain the pass for the Main Phase, Trentino Itas will have to finish first in group F just drawn (which also sees the presence of London and Novi Sad) and then in group H, in which the winner of group F will be included, but also of group D (which includes the Bulgarians of Burgas, the Russians of Dinamo Mosca and the Austrians of Aich / Dob) and E (with the Belgians of Maaseik, the Swiss of Amriswil and the Belarusians of Soligorsk).
"We absolutely want to qualify for the main phase and our goal necessarily goes through this type of match - explained coach Angelo Lorenzetti - . We have little information on the first opponents, so to try to get the result we want we will focus above all on our game, which must grow and become more fluid ”.
The Giallo-blù team will take part in the first of three appointments this week without the spiker Michieletto: he is in the Czech Republic with the Juniores National Team for the European category. The match will mark the CEV Champions League debut for three players from the squad: Argenta, Cortesia, Sperotto.
FIRST TIME IN THE PRELIMINARY PHASE The tenth participation in the maximum continental tournament for Trentino Volley Clubs will begin for the first time in the preliminary phase. Never before had the Giallo-blù club had to take part in a qualifying round before the Main Phase. The singular circumstance is due to the fact that Trentino Itas is at the start of the event thanks to a wild card granted by the CEV and not for sporting merits, given that for the purposes of qualification the classification of the Italian championship 2019/20 was valid at the time of the start of the lockdown (with Civitanova, Modena and Perugia ahead of Trento).
THE HISTORY OF TRENTINO VOLLEY IN EUROPEAN CUPS What opens on Tuesday is the tenth ever participation of Trentino Volley in the CEV Champions League, the fifteenth overall in the European field. Excluding the victories of the 2009, 2010 and 2011 editions, the third place 2012, the presence in the Playoffs 12 in 2013, the one in the Playoffs 6 in 2015 and 2018 and the second place overall in 2016, the via Trener club participated during the season 2004/05 without too much luck first at the Top Teams Cup (where it was eliminated by the Dutch OrtecNesselande Rotterdam in the preliminary phase played at PalaTrento) and then at the CEV Cup, trophy won in 2019 and also characterized by two finals lost at the golden set (in 2015 with Moscow, in 2017 with Tours). Taking into account all the European competitions played, Trentino Volley has so far played 130 official matches: the balance is 104 wins (52 in Trento, 52 away) and 26 defeats (20 in the Champions League, 5 in CEV and 1 in Top Teams Cup). The most frequently obtained result is 3-0, recurring in 48% of cases (63 games, 37 of these in Trento); the one that has occurred the least number of times is 0-3 defeat (five times).
The debut in the event has always been a good match for the Trentino colors: 3-0 at Bled on 4 November 2008, 3-2 in Athens against Olympiacos on 2 December 2009, 3-2 at Friedrichshafen on 17 November 2010, 3-0 at Teruel on 20 October 2011, 3-0 at Red Star Belgrade on 25 October 2012, 3-1 at Berlin on 24 October 2013, 3-0 at Maaseik on 5 November 2015 and 3-1 against Belgians on 5 December 2017, 3-2 at Fenerbahce on 12 December 2019.
THE OPPONENTS What will be played on Tuesday will be a historic match for IBB Polonia London. The Club of the English capital, founded in 1973 by two boys of Polish origin, will play for the first time in Italy, against a club in the greatest league in the world. It counts six league titles, the last of which won in 2019, two national cups while at the international level the most prestigious success is the NEVZA Cup (an event that pits the main clubs of Northern Europe against each other). He faces the CEV Champions League for the fourth time and in mid-September, to prepare himself for the match, it held a series of friendly matches in Greece (birthplace of coach Koutouleas), against Olympiacos Piraeus, AOK Kifisia and AonsMilon, the only formation with which he obtained the victory. The most representative player of the squad is undoubtedly the Swedish opposite spiker Marcus Nilsson, already MVP of the 2013 edition of the competition (when he won it with the Novosibirsk jersey) and already seen in Italy with the Piacenza jersey in the 2010/11 season and with that of Gioia del Colle in the 2002/03 season. The roster also features an Italian, the high-ball hammer Maggio. IBB Polonia London squad: 1. Peter Edwards (s), 2. Marc McLaughlin (p), 4. Andrea Maggio (o), 6. Philip Smith (c), 8. Marcus Nilsson (o), 9. Pierre Tang Taye (s), 10. Ephraim Mills (c), 11. Aden Tutton (l), 12. Renan De Paula Ribeiro (s), 13. BartoszKisielewicz (p), 14. David Mexson (c), 15. Filipi Rodrigues (l), 18. AnestisDalakouras (p), 19. Andrew Clayton (c). Coach Evangelos Koutouleas.
THE FORMULA Tuesday's game opens the only round robin of Pool F of the first preliminary round, which assigns only one place to the second and last phase before the main one (to which Civitanova, Modena and Perugia are already qualified). The Serbs of Novi Sad will also compete with Trentino Itas and IBB Polonia London, who will enter the game on Wednesday 30 September, facing the English at the BLM Group Arena (8.30 pm). The match between Trento and Novi Sad on Thursday 1 October (20.30) will decree the final classification.
BACKGROUND The confrontation against IBB Polonia London will write an unprecedented page in the international history of Trentino Volley. Never, in the previous thirteen seasons of presence in the European Cups, the Club of via Trener had met an English team. The complete list of the nations of the teams already faced by the Giallo-blù Club in the European Cups: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Luxembourg, Holland, Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey.
THE REFEREES The match will be directed by Dutchman Daniel Jettkandt, first referee from Enschede, and Croatian Milan Rajkovic (from Rijeka). Rajovic is the only one that can boast precedents compared to Trentino Volley, refereed on the occasion of the 3-0 imposed on Paok Salonicco on 19 January 2016 at the BLM Group Arena and the 3-1 home match against Maaseik on 28 February 2018 (both matches valid for the Champions League group stage).
RADIO AND INTERNET The match will be reported live by Radio Dolomiti, network partner of Trentino Volley. The frequencies to listen to the regional network can be consulted on the website www.radiodolomiti.com, where it will also be possible to listen to the live commentary in streaming.
Live streaming video will also be provided on the "EuroVolleyTv" web space, at the internet address www.eurovolley.tv; it is a paid service. For info on the packages offered www.eurovolley.tv/en-int/page/pricing-and-faq.
To follow the point-by-point evolution of the match, it will be possible to consult the official website of the CEV at https://cevlive.cev.eu/DV_LiveScore.aspx?ID=38484, which will provide the live score, or that of Trentino Volley www.trentinovolley.it which will also offer the report set by set a few minutes after the conclusion of each individual partial. Updates will always be active on the Giallo-blù Social Networks (www.trentinovolley.it/facebook, www.trentinovolley.it/instagram and www.trentinovolley.it/twitter).
RULES FOR ACCESSING THE BLM GROUP ARENA For this appointment, thanks to the effective collaboration established with the Autonomous Province of Trento, the APSS and the Protezione Civile, Trentino Volley will be able to access a maximum of one thousand spectators in the stands of the Via Fersina stadium. Tuesday 29 September the cash desks of the BLM Group Arena will remain closed to avoid possible gatherings; mini passes for the three days of competitions are still available on Monday and Tuesday (8-12 and 14-18) at the Trentino Volley offices, in via Trener 2 in Trento. Each holder of a mini pass must present the self-declaration of Covid-19 prevention at the entrance to the match, which can be replaced by the Immuni App correctly installed on their smartphone. At the entrance to the BLM Group Arena, the security officers will measure the temperature; if higher than 37.5 °, the person must stop in a special reserved space before a new check. Spectators will have to respect the routes traced for access. During the entire stay in the BLM Group Arena it will be mandatory to wear a mask and it will be forbidden to bring any type of banners, flags or other items inside. The expected interpersonal distance within the plant is 1.5 meters; groups of people not subject to distancing (cohabitants) will be exempt. The spectator will not be able to leave his seat except to go to the toilets. At the end of the game there will be no contact between the public and the players. The outflow must take place in an orderly manner, avoiding gatherings and following the order that will be given by the speaker and the control staff.

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