Trento, 25 March 2021

CEV Champions League, notes and statistical curiosities after qualifying for the Final

Some statistics and curiosities emerged after qualifying for the 2021 CEV Champions League Final of Trentino Volley.

FROM THE PRELIMINARY PHASE TO THE FINAL. Regardless of the final result, the tenth participation in the maximum continental tournament for Trentino Volley Clubs will represent its longest ride on the international field ever. The club from via Trener in the 2021 edition of the CEV Champions League has already played thirteen games, taking into account that the tournament started as early as September and saw Giannelli and his teammates protagonists of two preliminary qualifying rounds before the Main Phase. The singular circumstance is due to the fact that Trentino Itas took part in 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 then ahead of Trento). Lorenzetti's team is the only one that has ever managed to go all the way starting from the first preliminary round.

ODD YEAR, EUROPEAN FINAL YEAR. With the qualification earned on Wednesday evening in Umbria, Trentino Volley confirmed its recent trend regarding the European Cup Finals, which has been regularly accessed at least every two years for six seasons now. From 2015 onwards, the club of via Trener in the odd calendar years has always reached the final match of the continental competition in which it was registered: in 2015 playing the CEV Cup final (then lost at the golden set in Moscow), in 2017 in CEV Cup (also lost in this case at the golden set in Tours), in 2019 in the CEV Cup (won in Istanbul) and precisely in 2021 in the CEV Champions League. In this period of time there was also the exception: 2016, Champions League final, lost at the tie break with Kazan in Krakow. Five continental finals in seven seasons; in fact Trentino Volley failed to qualify for the last act of a CEV tournament only in 2018, taking into account that in 2020 its Champions League run was interrupted due to a pandemic.

FINAL WITH FORMER MEMBERS. The confrontation on May 1st at the AGSM Forum in Verona between Trentino Itas and GroupaAzoty Kedzierzyn-Kozle will be marked by illustrious former members. On one hand there will be Nikola Grbic, coach of the Polish team, but at the same time unforgotten captain and setter of the first two titles in the history of Trentino Volley: 2008 championship and, coincidentally, 2009 Champions League; on the other hand there will be Nimir Abdel-Aziz and Dick Kooy, which wore the Kedzierzyn-Kozle jersey together during the 20014-15 season, during which coincidentally, there was also room for a double semifinal match between the two Club (CEV Cup, round passed by Trento).

CLOSED THE STREAK OF CONSECUTIVE EUROPEAN VICTORIES. The unimportant defeat on Wednesday night at the PalaBarton in Perugia for 2-3 ended the streak of thirteen consecutive victories in the Trentino Volley European Cups that lasted from February 13, 2020 (home knockout with Lube in the Champions League). The streak just finished represents the second best giallo-blù series ever in the Champions League; the first includes fifteen consecutive victories and happened between November 4, 2008 (3-0 home match against Bled) and January 5, 2010 (defeat 1-3 in Moscow).

DE ANGELIS AND GIANNELLI THE ONLY VETERANS OF KRAKOW 2016. In the current Trentino Volley squad there are two players also present at the previous CEV Champions League Final played by Trentino Volley, on April 17, 2016 at the Tauron Arena in Krakow: the setter (and now Captain) Simone Giannelli and the libero Carlo De Angelis, both grown up in the giallo-blù youth sector. For the two of them, the match at the AGSM Forum in Verona will be the right opportunity to try and write a different ending in the tournament.

ANOTHER FINAL IN VERONA, TEN YEARS AFTER THE LAST ONE. The one on May 1st at the AGSM Forum will be the second final ever of an official competition that Trentino Volley will play in Verona. The only precedent refers to the epilogue of the 2011 Italian Cup, which was played at the Verona stadium on 23 January and lost 0-3 to Cuneo led by Nikola Grbic. 

Trentino Volley Srl
Press Office