Trento, 25 September 2021

2022 CEV Champions League, notes and curiosities on the yellow-blue run after the draw

Some statistics and curious notes emerged after the draw of the pools and schedules of the Main Phase of 2022 CEV Champions League of Friday evening in Ljubljana (Slovenia).

IN POOL E JUST LIKE THE LAST EDITION AND THE ONES OF 2009 AND 2018. For the fourth time in its eleven participations in CEV Champions League, Trentino Volley has been drawn in Pool E of the first phase, curiously as happened in the last edition as well. The same pool of the editions of 2009 and 2018. In other circumstances, the yellow-blue have played the matches in Pool A (2010 and 2020), Pool C (2012, 2013, and 2015), and Pool D (2014, 2011). On seven occasions out of ten, Trentino Volley has been qualified in the first place of its pool, arriving second in 2011, 2018, and 2020.

ALWAYS GOOD THE FIRST. In the ten participations in CEV Champions League, Trentino Volley has always won its debut. In eight circumstances, the debut happened at home: 4 November 2008 Bled lost by 3-0 at the BLM Group Arena in the first historic yellow-blue match in this manifestation, 17 November 2010 Friedrichshafen lost at the fifth set, 20 October 2011 Teruel lost, while 25 October 2012 and 24 October 2013 it was up to Red Star Belgrade and Berlin respectively to lose by 3-0 and 3-1; 5 November 2016 it was Maaseik to lose in three sets, 12 December 2019 Fenerbahce lost by 3-2, while 29 September 2020 London lost in three sets. The only seasonal debuts away have been in the season 2009/10, when the yellow-blue team played the debut game of the tournament in Athens, winning by 3-2 against Olympiacos Piraeus (2 December 2009) and the one 2017/18 (the latest precedent), when Trentino Volley won in Maaseik (Belgium) by 3-1 on 5 December 2017.

FROM GRBIC TO... GRBIC. Nikola Grbic continues to characterize the run in Champions League of Trentino Volley. In April 2009 in Prague, it was him, as captain, to raise to the sky of the O2 Arena the first trophy won in this competition from the yellow-blue Club. The Serbian was also, as coach, the one that prevented the Company to win for the fourth time the manifestation, defeating Trentino Itas by 3-1 in the final of the first May 2021 in Verona, living it on the bench of Kedzierzyn-Kozle. Curiously, he will still be him, in the meantime he became coach of Perugia, to inaugurate the new participation of Trentino Volley, just as he concluded the previous one a few months ago.

PERUGIA, ONCE A MONTH. The ballot box of Ljubljana did nothing but certificate how the match between Trento and Perugia becomes a constant for Italian volleyball in the following four-month period. From the end of October, the two teams are going to face each other once a month until February at least, considering the semifinal of Super Cup of 23 (in Civitanova), the game of the first round of regular season on 7 November in Perugia, the match on first December in Champions League in Umbria, the game of the second round of regular season on 16 January in Trento, the game on 9 February at the BLM Group Arena for the Champions. And it can be added a further match in Italian Cup, given that on 2 January they will be played the quarterfinals and on 22-23 January the Final Four.

ISTANBUL, ISTANBUL. The double match with Fenerbahce Istanbul that will characterize, among many others, the run of Trentino Itas is the remake of four precedents, gone on stage between the double match of semifinal of 2017 CEV Cup (a win each between 28 March and 1 April), and in the pools phase of Champions League 2020 (two yellow-blue win, at home on 12 December 2019 and in Istanbul on 30 January 2020). Moreover, at the end of January 2022, the yellow-blue Club can return to Istanbul, which from 26 March 2019 isn’t no longer just any place among the many cities visited by Trentino Volley in its European campaigns. On that date, the yellow-blue Club has in fact won the 2019 CEV Cup (four continental title, nine international), winning by 3-2 against Galatasaray.

EIGHT ITALIAN DERBY IN THE EUROPEAN CUPS. For Trentino Volley, the one with Perugia that starts with the debut in Pool E will be the eight Italian derby in the European Cups. The most recent was played right against the Umbrians in the double game of semifinal (18 and 24 March 2021) of this same calendar year, always in Champions League, in favour of the yellow-blue. In archive there are also a game in 2017 CEV Cup with Piacenza in the quarterfinals (double win, by 3-0 away and 3-1 at home), and five with Lube (all in Champions League): 3-0 in the semifinal of the edition 2009, 2-3 and 3-0 in the Playoffs 6 of 2012, 3-0 in the semifinal of the edition 2016, 1-3 and 2-3 in the quarterfinals 2018, 0-3 and 1-3 in the pools phase 2020.

FOR THE FIRST TIME IN FRENCH RIVIERA. The run in the pools phase of Trentino Itas ends on 16 February 2022 in Cannes, in the one that is going to be the first match of the history of Trentino Volley in French Riviera. In precedent, the yellow-blue Club was protagonist of five away games in France. The latest time dates to 14 March 2018 in Reims for the first round of the last sixteen of Champions League, lost at the tie break with Chaumont. The other official French matches are related to the second final of 2017 CEV Cup, lost at the golden set the 15 April in Tours, city visited in two other circumstances (1st November 2012 and 16 December 2015). The first journey in France dates to the match of 11 November 2008 in Beauvais, where Trentino Itas played the first away game of its history in CEV Champions League.

THE NUMBERS OF THE EUROPEAN CUPS. Considering all the played European competitions, Trentino Volley played 144 official matches: the report is of 116 wins (59 in Trento, 57 away), and 28 defeats (22 in Champions League, 5 in CEV, and 1 in Top Teams Cup). The most frequent result was 3-0 in 49,3% of the cases (71 matches, 42 of them at home); the less frequent one was the defeat by 0-3 (five times). Taking into account also the eight participations in the Club World Championship (between 2009 and 2014, and then in 2016 and 2018), the international matches played by the yellow-blue Company are 182: 114 away, 68 in Trento.

Trentino Volley Srl
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