Trento, 13 February 2021

2021 CEV Champions League, notes and curiosities after the draw of the quarterfinals

Some statistics and curious notes after the draw of the quarterfinals of 2021 CEV Champions League on Friday morning in Luxembourg.

FROM THE PRELIMINARY PHASE TO THE QUARTERFINALS. The tenth participation of the biggest continental championship for Club of Trentino Volley is one of the longest ever in the international field. Trentino Itas has already played nine matches in its European adventure, even before accessing the final draw, considering that its start of the championship began in September, and saw Giannelli and teammates protagonists of two preliminary rounds before the Main Phase. The singular circumstance is due to the fact that Trentino Itas participated in the competition thanks to a wild card of CEV and not due to sporting merits, seeing that for the qualification was important the ranking of the 2019/20 Italian championship at the start of the lockdown (with Civitanova, Modena, and Perugia ahead of Trento). Lorenzetti’s team was the only one to qualify at the Playoffs starting from the preliminary rounds.

TO THE QUARTERFINALS WITHOUT DEFEATS. Trentino Itas will arrive at the quarterfinals with the seasonal invincibility in 2021 CEV Champions League. Between the two preliminary rounds and the Pool of the Main Phase, the gialloblù team won all the nine matches played (officially ten, if considering also the 3-0 forfeit of Friedrichshafen on Thursday), leaving room for four sets: two at Novosibirsk in the match of the first December and two at Karlovarsko, equally divided between the match of 2 December and the match of 10 February. A very promising roadmap in view of the decisive part of the competition.

QUARTERFINALS WON IN FIVE OF NINE CASES. In the precedent nine participations at the Champions League, Trentino Volley was always able to enter the final ranking of the competition, winning the qualification at the quarterfinals in eight cases. The only time in which it lost was during 2013 edition, when it was eliminated by Dinamo Moscow at the Golden Set. In five cases out of eight, the gialloblù team won the quarterfinals, going to the semifinals: 2009, 2010, 2011 editions (all three concluded with the final victory of the championship), 2012 (third place), and 2016 (second place). 

IN BERLIN, SEVEN YEARS AFTER. The combination of the quarterfinals with Berlin Recycling Volleys will allow Trentino Volley to return to Germany, after being there a few days before to play the bubble of Friedrichshafen. The one of 24 February in the German capital will be an old away game for Trentino Volley, which will return to Berlin seven years after the last and only precedent occasion. The former Trentino Diatec played at the Max Schmeling Halle on 18 December 2013, losing in three sets the irrelevant match of the pool phase.

FORMER AT THE CENTRE OF THE NET. The confrontation with Berlin will allow the two middle blockers to see again the environment where previously they were acclaimed protagonists for a season of their bright career. On the one hand Srecko Lisinac, who played in Berlin in the 2013/14 competitive season and also won a Bundesliga, on the other Eder Carbonera, who played in Trento in the 2017/18 season, collecting 48 appearances, 363 points.

BERLIN AT THE PALATRENTO FOR THE THIRD TIME IN ITS HISTORY. The second round of the quarterfinals, to be played on the firsts of March (the official date isn’t yet decided), will mark the third appearance ever of Berlin Recycling Volleys at the BLM Group Arena in Trento. In 2013, where the facility was still called “PalaTrento”, the team of the German capital went here two times: on 6 March for a friendly match pre Play Off Scudetto (victory by 3-1 for the gialloblù with partials of 25-18, 25-23, 25-27, 25-17), and on 24 October, in the debut match of Pool D of Champions League (another victory by 3-1, with partials of 25-20, 21-25, 29-27, 25-21).

THE NUMBERS OF THE EUROPEAN CUPS. This is the tenth ever participation of Trentino Volley in the CEV Champions League, the fifteenth overall in the European field. Trentino Volley participated in the 2004/05 season without any luck before at the Top Teams Cup (where it was eliminated by the Dutchs of Ortec Nesselande Rotterdam in the preliminary phase played at the PalaTrento), and then at the CEV Cup, championship won in 2019 and also characterized by two lost finals in the golden set (in 2015 with Moscow, in 2017 with Tours). Considering all European matches, Trentino Volley has played 139th official competitions: winning 113 times (57 in Trento, 56 on away field), being defeated 26 times (20 in Champions League, 5 in CEV, and 1 in Top Teams Cup). The most frequent result was 3-0 in 49,6% of the cases (69 matches, 40 of them at home); the less frequent one was the defeat by 0-3 (five times).

Trentino Volley Srl
Press Office