Trento, 17 March 2021

2021 CEV Champions League, on Thursday (at 19) at the BLM Group Arena the first Semifinal

It’s time for the semifinals for 2021 CEV Champions League. After two preliminary phases, Main Phase, and the quarterfinals, the biggest continental competition for Club continues with the last double turn of matches that take to the Final of the first of May in Verona. For Trentino Itas, it’s time for the Italian derby with Sir Sicoma Monini Perugia; the first round is played on Thursday 18 March at the BLM Group Arena in Trento. The kickoff is at 19; live on RAI Sport +, Sky Sport Arena, Radio Dolomiti, and on www.eurovolley.tv.
HERE TRENTINO ITAS After the pass for the semifinals of Play Off Scudetto on Sunday evening in Piacenza, for the next seven days, the gialloblù team can focus only on its European run, returning to play (after five years) a semifinal of Champions League against an Italian formation. Just like it happened the last time (16 April 2016 in Krakow against Lube).
“We’re proud to be up to this point of the competition, but we clearly don’t want to stop, and we will do everything we can to pass the round, because it’s particularly important for our European run – said the coach Angelo Lorenzetti - . We will face Perugia, which won the regular season of the Italian championship and already eliminated us from Coppa Italia in the semifinal. Therefore, we know that a very difficult task awaits us, also because we will play the second round away”.
Trentino Itas arrives at the appointment strong of the seasonal invincibility in the competition, in which it has won eleven matches on the field (twelve considering the forfeit of Friedrichshafen of 11 February) between preliminary phases, Pool E, and the quarterfinals. Lorenzetti can count on all the players of the team, who will end the match preparation between training in this afternoon and the one on Thursday morning. Between the thirteen players available, only De Angelis, Giannelli, Podrascanin, and Lisinac have already played a semifinal of the competition; the other nine are all debuting.
THE NUMBERS OF TRENTINO VOLLEY IN EUROPE On Thursday, there is the sixth semifinal in ten total participation in Champions League for Trentino Volley: the previous five date back to 2009, 2010, 2011 editions (all three ended with a final victory of the trophy) 2012 (third place), and 2016 (second place); all played in one match. The only semifinals with a double round in the European competitions of the gialloblù Company date back to the participations at the CEV Cup: 2015 edition (3-2 and 3-1 on Kedzierzyn-Kozle), 2017 (3-0 and 2-3 on Fenerbahce), and 2019 (3-0 and 3-1 on Olympiacos). Considering all European matches, Trentino Volley has played 141st official competitions: winning 115 times (58 in Trento, 57 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 (70 matches, 41 of them at home); the less frequent one was the defeat by 0-3 (five times).
THIRD ITALIAN DERBY IN THE SEMIFINAL In two of the five previous semifinals of Champions League, Trentino Volley had already played an Italian derby and in both cases against Lube: 4 April 2009 in Prague (Czech Republic, win in three sets at the O2 Arena) and 16 April 2016 in Krakow (Poland, win by 3-0 at the Tauron Arena). Altogether there are ten comparisons with other Italian teams in the European cups, considering the double confrontation in the quarterfinals of Champions League 2012 with Macerata, of the two with Piacenza in the quarterfinals of CEV Cup 2017, of the two matches with Civitanova in the quarterfinals of Champions 2018, and of the two games in the Pool phase of Champions 2020 with Lube.
THE OPPONENTS Even though it has never won the trophy, Sir Sicoma Monini Perugia has become a habitué of the semifinal of CEV Champions League. Since it started playing the biggest continental competition (2017 edition), the Umbrian Company missed the entry of the final only in the latest season and only because the pandemic forced the International Confederation to stop before the conclusion of the competition. In all the other cases (four), Block Devils have always played matches that assign a place in the final, reaching it on only one occasion (2017 edition, organized in Rome by Perugia). Perugia is in Trento to try to win, after four years, the pass for the most important match, with a great run that during the championship shaped the team. Heynen’s team succeeded in winning the matches with the other two Italian teams, first it won against Civitanova, qualifying in first place of Pool B and then, in the quarterfinals, overturned the 0-3 in Modena in the first round with a great performance in the second round, played at home (3-0 and golden set won by 15-5). Also on this occasion, Travica and teammates can count on the second round at the PalaBarton, but, between one match and the other, they have to play match 3 of the quarterfinals of Play Off Scudetto with Milano.
THE FORMULA AND THE OTHER MATCHES The match on Thursday is valid as first round of the semifinal of 2021 CEV Champions League; in the second turn of the final ranking, the best four teams of Europe face each other in a double confrontation, from which will be known the names of the two teams that play the Final on the first of May in Verona. The teams that will win both matches will pass the round; only if the two teams have won a match each at the tie break or in case both have won a match each in a maximum of four sets, it will be played the Golden set at 15 at the end of the second game. The other semifinal is Kazan-Kedzierzyn-Kozle (first round on Thursday at 17, Italian time).
THE PRECEDENTS Trentino Volley and Sir Safety Perugia have already 37 official matches, with a positive report of 19-18 for Trentino Volley; in the current season, the situation is favourable to the Umbrians, thanks to the field factor in the matches of regular season for 1-3: Perugia won the 18 October at the BLM Group Arena (with partials of 25-17, 22-25, 17-25, 25-27), while Trento won the 3 January at the PalaBarton (25-20, 23-25, 25-19, 25-19). The last 30 January in Bologna, Sir won by 3-0 in the semifinal of Coppa Italia with partials of 19-25, 14-25, 17-25. 4. The match in the semifinal with Perugia will represent a first time only in Champions League. In all the other Italian competitions organized by Lega Pallavolo Serie A, the confrontation was played often, in fact, Trentino Volley and Sir Safety Volley had already nine matches in semifinal overall: three in the Play Off Scudetto (2015, 2017, and 2018), three in Coppa Italia (2015, 2018, and 2021), and three in Supercoppa Italiana (2017, 2018, and 2020). The gialloblù report is of three passes of the round and six eliminations.
THE REFEREES The match will be directed by Juray Mokry, first Slovakian referee from Martin, and the Romanian Lucian-Vasile Nastase (from Galați). Both have precedents with a Trentino Volley, but Mokry is the one who has the most; between the many matches, there is Trento-Salonicco 3-1 of 4 April 2009 (final of Champions League in Prague), Trento-Moscow 3-0 of 17 December 2009, Trento-Kazan of 27 March 2011 (final of Champions League in Bolzano), and the most recent Italian derby (Trento-Civitanova 1-3 of 13 February 2020). Instead, Nastase has directed Kedzierzyn-Kozle-Trento 3-2 of 20 December 2017 and Trento-Fenerbahce 3-2 of 12 December 2019.
TV, RADIO AND INTERNETThe match is a global event and will be live on every media. On television, it will be broadcast live by RAI Sport +, channel 58 on the digital terrestrial platform with the report by Maurizio Colantoni and Fabio Vullo. The game is on streaming internet also at www.raisport.rai.it/dl/raisport/multimedia/diretta.html. On tv, there is also the live broadcast on Sky Sport Arena, channel on the Sky satellite platform and on every device with "SkyGo" (paid service). The report is by Michele Gallerani and Andrea Zorzi.
Starting at 19, the match will have a full and live coverage by Radio Dolomiti, network partner of Trentino Volley. The frequencies can be found on www.radiodolomiti.com, where it will be possible to listen to the radio commentary in streaming. There will also be the broadcast in streaming video on “EuroVolleyTv” at www.eurovolley.tv (paid service). For info on the packages offered www.eurovolley.tv/en-int/page/pricing-and-faq.
On Internet, to follow the points-to-points updates, there is the official website of CEV (https://cevlive.cev.eu/DV_LiveScore.aspx?ID=40613), or the one of Trentino Volley (www.trentinovolley.it). The updates will also be on the gialloblù Social Network.
BLM GROUP ARENA BEHIND CLOSED DOORS Following the ordinances in the latest Prime Ministerial Decree, the arena is closed to the public, allowing only a few accredited media and field staff to enter.

Trentino Volley Srl
Press Office