Trento, 01 December 2021

The race to the 2022 CEV Champions League starts on Thursday in Perugia

The 2022 CEV Champions League starts. As a matter of fact, the first turn of the group phase is played on Thursday the 2nd of December. This is the most important continental edition for the club that Trentino Volley will play for the eleventh time (third in a row) in its own history. The yellow-blue team will debut in the tournament at PalaBarton in Perugia and they will play against the hosts and compatriots of Sir Sicome Monini in the big match of Pool E. The scheduled kick off is at 20.30, local time: it will be aired on Radio Dolomoti and discovery +.
HERE TRENTINO ITAS. Exactly seven months after the final in Verona, the Society of Trener Street plays once again a Champions League match, precisely against the opponent that allowed it to enter to the last match in Verona.
“The presence of a formation of high level like Perugia in our group will necessarily force us to never make a mistake in matches against opponents like Fenerbahce and Cannes, if we want to remain in the race for the qualification to the quarter final,  - declared the trainer, Angelo Lorenzetti - .We will try to start our seasonal race in Europa with the right foot on Thursday evening, but it is clear that we will have to keep an eye especially on the other two, so as to have the best ranking possible even in relation to the other four groups. I see the match against the Umbrian team as an important double opportunity to give even more meaning to our path in the tournament.”
The whole yellow-blue team will be at the appointment, even thanks to Marko Podrascanin, who is coming back. The match will mark the debut in CEV Champions League for two players of the pink team: the playmaker Sbertoli and the opposite hitter Albergati.
KAZIYSKI BECOMES THE RECORD HOLDER OF PRESENCE IN THE YELLOW-BLUE TEAM: 346 OFFICIAL MATCHES. Exactly in this occasion the captain Matey Kaziyski will achieve the goal of 346 presence with Trentino Volley, becoming the player with most played matches in almost twenty-two years of club activity. After catching up with the record holders Birarelli and Colaci (opponent on the field on Thursday) on Wednesday who had 345, the Kaiser is about to become even more important in the book of the records of the Society, achieving the only record, among the most important one at statistic level, that wasn’t one of his. In fact, Matey is already the best defensive maker in history with 5.111 points, with this season he has become the only player to have worn the yellow-blue T-shirt in nine different agonistic years and he is the captain that has worn the band the most (216).
With the recent victory of Supercoppa 2021, he has then equalled the record of Birarelli in terms of titles obtained with Trentino Volley: 16, thanks to the victory in 4 World Cup for the Club, 3 Champions League, 4 Italian championship, 3 Coppe Italia and 2 Supercoppe.
THE HISTORY OF TRENTINO VOLLEY IN THE EUROPEAN CUP. On Thursday, Trentino Volley launches its eleventh participation at the top continental tournament for the Club. It will be the sixteenth in a European competition considering also the four in CEV Cup (2005, 2015, 2017, 2019, with a victory exactly in the last edition) and one in Top Teams Cup (2005). The memory album related to Champions League is full of important pages. The first one is related to the evening of the 5th of April 2009 in Prague, when the yellow-blue formation won 3-1 against Iraklis Thessaloniki, conquering the title after winning in the semifinal against Macerata in the Italian derby and ending the tournament with a perfect score (12 victories out of 12 competed matches). On the other hand, the second one is related to the 2nd of May 2010 and the clear success against Dinamo Mosca at Atlas Arena in Lodz, while the third one, absolutely unforgettable, is related to the 27th of March 2011 and the score of 3-1 against the Kazan at PalaOnda in Bolzano. After the match in South Tyrol, Trentino Volley had the opportunity to play two more finals of the tournament: in Poland in 2016 and, exactly the 1st of May this year, in Verona. In the archive there is also a third place, related to the edition do 2012.
In total, the matches in the European Cup played by Trentino Volley are 144, of which 116 are victories. In Champions League the evaluation is still more reassuring, as the successes are 82 out of 104 matches. The debut in the event was always the best for the team of Trentino: 10 victories out of 10 debuts, the last one with a score of 3-0 in London December 29, 2020.
THE OPPONENTS. Nikola Grbic continues to characterize the path of Trentino Volley in Champions League. In April 2009 in Prague, he was the one to raise to the sky of O2 Arena the first trophy won in this competition by the yellow-blue Club as captain. The Serbian player was also the one that prevented the Society to win for the fourth time the competition, winning against Trentino Itas with a score of 3-1 in the finals the 1st of May 2021 in Verona, this time as the coach of Kedzierzyn-Kozle. Strangely enough, he will be the one to start the new yellow-blue participation, as coach of Sir Sicoma Monina, a team that does not hide its own ambitions in the sixth participation in absolute in the top continental trophy. From the moment the Umbrain Society started to run for it (edition 2017), it missed the access to the semifinals only in the 2019/20 season and only because the pandemic forced the International Confederation to stop the event earlier. In all the other cases (five), the Block Devils have always played the matches that established a place to the final, winning that place in one occasion (2017 edition, organized in Rome exactly by the red-black Club). In the roster there are lots of players with big experience in the tournament: Leon, Anderson, Giannelli, Colaci, Solé, for example. They found themselves against one another in the Finals of the 2016 edition, which was won by Kazan at the tie break against Trento in Cracow (Poland).
THE FORMULA. The match opens the yellow-blue group phase of 2022 CEV Champions League. After the first three preliminary round, the tournament gets into the thick of things dividing the twenty participating teams in five Pool of four teams each. They will have to play against one another in an Italian-style group with first and second rounds. In the Main Phase is effective the Italian system of point distribution in the ranking, but the first distinguishing factor is the number of victory. At the end of this phase (the last match is expected for February 16, 2022), the first team in each Pool and the three best second will enter the quarter final. These will be characterized by direct matches with first and second rounds. The finals will be played on the 22nd of May 2022 on neutral field. In the same Pool the match between Fenerbahce and Cannes was played Tuesday evening, where the Turkish team (next opponents of the yellow-blue team on December 16, Trento) won rapidly in three sets.
EIGHTH ITALIAN DERBY IN THE EUROPEAN CUP. For Trentino Volley it will be the eighth Italian derby against Perugia in the European Cup. The most recent one was played exactly against the Umbrian team in the double match in the semifinal (March 18 and 24, 2021) of this same year, once again in Champions League, where the yellow-blue team won. In the archive there are also an Italian match in 2017 CEV Cup against Piacenza in the quarter final (double victory, with a score of 3-0 in an away team and 3-1 at home) and five against Lube (all in Champions League): 3-0 in the semifinal of the 2009 edition, 2-3 and 3-0 in the Playoffs 6 of 2012, 3-0 in the semifinal of the 2016 edition, 1-3 and 2-3 in the quarter final 2018, 0-3 and 1-3 in the 2020 group phase.
THE PREVIOUS MATCHES. The official matches are 41 and they were played between Tretino Volley and Sir Safety Perugia, with a positive evaluation for the first one with a score of 21-20. In the ongoing season, the sum is exactly even, with a victory each in three sets: for Trento in Civitanova in the semifinal of Supercoppa (partials 25-21, 25,21, 25-23) the 23rd of October, for Perugia at home for the fifth turn of SuperLega with a score of 25-12, 25-22, 25-18 last 3rd of November. overall, Trentino Volley won five times in seventeen matches at PalaBarton.
THE REFEREES. The match will be supervised by Epaminondas Gerothorodos, first Greek referee of Athens, and by the Hungarian Laszlo Adler, second referee of Budapest. Both of them have supervised lots of matches with Trentino Volley. The most recent one for the Greek referee is the Final in Verona the 1st of May this year, while for the Hungarian referee is the away score 3-1 obtained in Berlin the 25th of February of this year.
RADIO AND INTERNET. The match will me aired live on Radio Dolomiti, partner radio of Trentino Volley, starting at 20.30. The frequency to tune in to the regional network are available on the website  www.radiodolomiti.com, where it will also be possible to listen to the live radio update in streaming.
The live recording is expected via streaming video on the platform “discovery+”, buying the package “Entertainment+Sport” (yearly subscription at 69.90 euro). For more informations www.discoveryplus.it/myaccount/products.
Moreover, the updates on the Internet will be controlled by the website of CEV (https://cevlive.cev.eu/DV_LiveScore.aspx?ID=46064), by the www.trentinovolley.it and they will be available also on the yellow-blue Social Network ( www.trentinovolley.it/facebook, www.trentinovolley.it/instagram e www.trentinovolley.it/twitter).

Trentino Volley Srl
Press Office