Trento, 29 March 2022

2022 CEV Champions League, on Wednesday in Perugia the the first round of Semifinal

It’s time for the semifinal of 2022 CEV Champions League. After the Main Phase and the quarter finals, the top continental competition for the club continues with the last double turn of matches that leads to the final on May 22nd (place still to officialise).
For Trentino Itas, it’s time for a new Italian derby with Sir Sicome Monini Perugia. The first round match will be played on Wednesday March 30th at PalaBarton. The kick-off is set to be at 8.30 p.m.. Live on RAI Sport +, Radio Dolomiti and discovery +.
HERE TRENTINO ITAS The confidence was restored after Saturday’s victory against Piacenza in match 1 in the quarter final of Play-Off, the yellow-blue formation starts again to think about its European adventure, playing again a semifinal of Champions League, strangely against an Italian formation as happened the last two times (on April 16th 2016 in Cracow against Lube and on March 18th-24th 2021 against Perugia).
“We are proud to be able to live once again a double appointment like this one. An appointment that put at stake the qualification for the finals of Champions League,” declared Trentino Itas’ trainer Angelo Lorenzetti presenting the double match, before Wednesday’s match.“One year ago, we were facing in Perugia an opponent that hadn’t lost so far in this edition of the tournament and had even led the Italian Championship. We now have to face a hard task, but we know we have the opportunity to make things difficult for Sir Sicoma Monini as already happened in this season. It is a great appointment and I wish the team can enjoy this moment, playing while giving their best and without any particular thought. Reaching this moment was not taken for granted.”
Trentino Itas reaches the appointment with eight matches behind (four away) during the month of March, that will finish with this match. Lorenzetti can count on everybody on the team, that will finish their preparation for the match between this evening’s training and the one of Wednesday morning at PalaBarton. Among the thirteen players available, only Kaziyski, Michieletto, Sperotto, De Angelis, Podrascanin and Lisinac have previously played a semifinal of the competition. For the other seven it is the first time.
THE NUMBERS OF TRENTINO VOLLEY IN EUROPE The semifinal on Wednesday is the seventh one out of eleven participation in Champions League for Trentino Volley: the previous match were in the second to last act of the tournament are relative to the 2009 edition (won in Prague), the one of 2010 (won in Lodz), the one in 2011 (won in Bolzano), the one of 2012 (third place in Losz), the one in 2016 (second place in Cracow) and the one in 2011 (second place in Verona). In general, for Trentino Volley, the match that starts in Perugia is the tenth match in a European semifinal, as the team played in the 2015 edition (lost in the final against  Moscow), the 2017 one (lost in the final against Tours) and the 2019 one (won against  Galatasaray) of CEV Cup. Taking into account all the European competition played, Trentino Volley has played 153 official matches so far: the evaluation is 121 victories (62 in Trento, 59 away) and 32 defeats (26 in Champions League, 5 in CEV and 1 in Top Team Cup). The most frequent result obtained is 3-0, happened 49% on the time (75 matches, 45 of these were home games). Defeats for 0-3 happened the least (seven times).
FOURTH ITALIAN DERBY IN SEMIFINAL In half of the previous six semifinals of Champions League, Trentino Volley had already played an Italian derby. In the first two cases with Lube: on April 4th 2009 in Prague (Czech Republic, success in three sets at O2 Arena) and on April 16th 2016 in Cracow (Poland, success for 3-0 in Tauron Arena). The last match against Perugia: on March 18th 2021 in Trento (3-0) and on March 24th 2021 in Umbria (defeat at tie-break)
In total, the matches are fourteen with other Italian teams in the European Cups, taking into account also the double match in the quarter final of Champions League 2012 against Macerata, the two matches against Piacenza in the quarter final of CEV Cup 2017, the two matches against Civitanova in the quarter final of Champions 2018, the two matches in the round phase of Champions 2020 again against Lube and the matches in this edition again with Sir Sicoma.
THE OPPONENTS Despite not having achieved the victory of the trophy yet, Sir Sicoma Monini Perugia has now become an habitue of the semifinal of CEV champions League. Since the team has begun to play the top continental competition (2017 edition), the Ubrian Society missed the access to such phase only in 2019/20 season and only because of the pandemic forced the International Confederation to suspend the conclusion of the manifestation earlier.
In all the other cases (five), Block Devils has always been playing the matches that would have given access to the final, achieving it only in one occasion (the 2017 edition, organized in Rome by the red and black Club). Perugia hosts Trento so as to obtain, after five years, the ticket to the most important match in an almost perfect path so far during the competition: six victories for 3-0 in European matches played and the qualification as by official rule, taking into account that in the quarter final the team should have had to play against San Pietroburgo (out from CEV).
In this event, Gianelli and his teammates can count on the court (where in this season they have lost only once out of seventeen official matches played) during the first round, but between one match and the other, they will have to play match 2 of the quarter final of Play-Off Scudetto in Cisterna.
THE FORMULA AND OTHER MATCHES The match on Wednesday will be valid as match for the first round of the semifinal of 2022 CEV Champions League. In the second turn on the final board, the best four European team will indeed play in a double match, which will decide the name of the two teams that will play in the final on May 22nd. The teams that will pass the turn, will be the ones that will have won both matches. Only if both teams have won one match each at tie break or in case of both of them have won a match each in four sets, the Golden set in fifteen points will be played at the end of the second match. The other match of the semifinal is Jastrzebski-Kedzierzyn-Kozle (first round on Wednesday at 8 p.m.)
THE PREVIOUS MATCHES The offal matches between Trentino Volley and Sir Safety Perugia are already 45, with an evaluation that is in favour of the Umbrian team thanks to the victory of the last match (March 6th, 2022, Final of Coppa Italia in Bologna, won for 1-3 by Block Devils): 23-22. During the ongoing season, the situation is in favour of Sir for 4-2, with Itas Trentino’s victory in the semifinal of Supercoppa in Civitanova for 3-0 on October 23rd and the match of regular season on January 2nd play at home. The other three successes by the team of Perugia were on November 7th, December 2nd (At PalaBarton) and February 10th (at BLM Group Arena), all for 3-0. The match in a semifinal of a competition with Perugia has now become a pleasant routine, even on international field. In total, Trentino Volley and Sir Safety Volley have already eleven matches in the semifinal, played as follows: once in Champions League (2021), three times in the Play-Off Scudetto (2015, 2018 and 2021) and four in Supercoppa Italiana (2017, 2018, 2020 and 2021). The evaluation for Trentino Volley is five victories and six eliminations. In total, Trentino Volley won six matches out of eighteen at Palabarton.
THE REFEREES The match will be supervised by Spanish referee David  Fernandez Fuentes, from Barcelona, and by the Italian referee Andrea Puecher (from Rubano, Padova). Fernandez Fuentes supervised Trentino Volley during the matches in Champions League on March 20th 2018 (3-0 in in Chaumont in the second round of the round of sixteen) and on October 28th 2020 (3-0 in Amriswil in the second match of the qualifying round). Puecher supervised lots of matches with Trentino Volley. The last once was in Perugia on March 6th 2021, during the final of Coppa Italia in Bologna.
TV, RADIO AND THE INTERNET The match will be a global media event, with the live on TV, radio and the internet. On the small screen, the match will be aired by RAI Sport +, channel present on the platform digitale terrestre (channel 58), with the chronicles made by Maurizio Colantoni and Fabio Vullo.
It is also set the live match by Radio Dolomiti, radio partner of Trentino Volley. The frequencies to listen to the regional network are available on the website www.radiodolomiti.com, where it will be also possible to follow the radio updates live in streaming.
The live in streaming video is on the platform”Dicorvery+”, buying the package “Intrattenimento + Sport” (yearly subscription at 69,90 euro). For more information www.discoveryplus.it/myaccount/products.
On the internet, the point-to-point updates will be supervised by CEV (https://cevlive.cev.eu/DV_LiveScore.aspx?ID=46084), www.trentinovolley.it and they will be active also on the social Netwrok of Trentino Volley (www.trentinovolley.it/facebook, www.trentinovolley.it/instagram e www.trentinovolley.it/twitter).

Trentino Volley Srl
Press Office