Trento, 09 November 2022

2023 CEV Champions League will start on Thursday at the BLM Group Arena

2023 CEV Champions League’s debut; the first match of the most important continental club championship will take place on Thursday November 10th at the BLM Group Arena in Trento, and Trentino Volley will compete for the twelfth time (the fourth consecutive) of its history.
The yellow-blue team will be debuting before their fans against the Belgian team Decospan Menen in one of the two scheduled matches for Pool D. The match’s start is at 8.30 p.m. (Italian time): live on Radio Dolomiti and discovery+.
HERE ITAS TRENTINO Less than six months away from the Ljubljana Final, Trener Street’s society is back to compete for the Champions League match and start a new chapter of its international history. “We all know how important this competition is for our club and our fans and how many emotions we got from it during the last seasons. Given that, we know well that the past does not get in the way – coach Angelo Lorenzetti explained - If we want to qualify for the tournament’s Playoffs, these matches are even more important than the ones we will play against Kedzierzyn-Kozlereigning champions, because if we want to gain at least a second place, we must not lose points. Therefore, we must be extremely focused on a match in which our opponent could play with no pressure and with the enthusiasm of playing at such levels for the first time”.
The entire yellow-blue team will compete; this match will mark the debut in the CEV Champions League for the five shortlist’s members: the setter Depalma, the two liberos Laurenzano and Pace, the middle blocker Berger and the hitter spiker Džavoronok.
TRENTINO VOLLEY’S HISTORY IN THE EUROPEAN CUPS On Thursday Trentino Volley will play the twelfth match of the top official continental Club competition, the seventeenth of a European competition, considering the other four of the CEV Cup (2005, 2015, 2017, 2019, winning right in the last edition) and the Top Teams Cup (2005). The CEV Champions League memory album is full of important pages: the first one was on April 5th 2009 in Praha, when the yellow-blue team won 3-1 against Iraklis Thessaloniki and gained the title after it beat Macerata in the Italian derby’s semi-final, closing the tournament with a clear round (12 victories out of 12 matches); the second one was on May 2nd 2010, with a victory against Dinamo Mosca at Lodz’s Atlas Arena, and the third one was the absolutely unforgettable 3-1 victory against Kazan at PalaOnda in Bolzano on March 27th 2011, gained in the final. After the latter, Trentino Volley also had the opportunity to play other three tournament’s Finals: on April 17th 2016 in Cracow, on May 1st 2021 in Verona and on May 22nd of this year in Ljubljana, gaining the second place in each one; the team counts a third place, too, which is related to 2012 edition. Trentino Volley won 116 out of the 144 matches played in the European Cups. In the Champions League, the record is even more encouraging, with 88 victories in 115 matches played. The championship’s debut has always been on Trentino’s team side: 10 victories out of 11 debut matches; the one and only fail was right in the last edition (on December 2nd 2021 the team was beaten in three sets from Perugia).
THE OPPONENTS Thursday's match in Trento for the Decospan Vt of Menen, a town of 30,000 inhabitants in West Flanders very close to the border with France, will be a historic one, as it will mark its absolute debut in the CEV Champions League, having previously taken part in six Challenge Cup editions (where in 2012 and 2016 it reached the semifinals) and four CEV Cups, in which it also participated last season, being eliminated by Las Palmas in the round of 16. The black-green club earned its presence in the top continental competition thanks to its second place in the last Belgian championship, defeated in the Scudetto Final by Roeselare in three games. This is the best result in the history of the club, which arrived in the first league in 2000, without winning any trophies so far (in the Belgian Cup it stopped at the semi-finals at best). The squad prepared by the management for this first historic participation in the Champions League is mainly based on the confirmation of the nucleus of players who in the previous season won the qualification, once again entrusted to coach Frank Depestele (a former successful setter with experience in Russia, Greece, Turkey, France and Argentina). The mainstays are captain Sinnesael (middle-blocker), opposite Kindt and libero Stuer, to whom the market has added the setters Hanninen and Capet and middle-blocker Van de Velde. Start of the season was not the best: in the Belgian championship, in fact, it is in last place after four days, having had to deal with as many defeats. Last weekend, however, they qualified for the semi-finals of the Belgian Cup, beating Wijgmaal 3-0. Decospan Vt Menen's squad: 1. Jiri Hanninen (outside-hitter), 3. Jelle Sinnesael (middle-blocker), 4. Leonis Dedeyne (middle-blocker), 5. Basil Dermaux (outside-hitter), 6. Yentl Bille (libero), 7. Mathieu Vanneste (outside-hitter), 8. Maxime Capet (outside-hitter), 9. Lowie Stuer (libero), 11. Seppe Van Hoyweghen (setter), 12. Thiemen Ocket (setter), 13. Arno Van de Velde (middle-blocker), 15. Lou Kindt (opposite). Coach Frank Depestele.
DEBUT AGAINST A BELGIAN TEAM AS IN 2015 AND 2017 Starting their Champions League journey at home against a Belgian team is not something new for Trentino Volley; it had already happened in the 2016 edition. The previous one dates back to 5 November 2015, a 3-0 success against Noliko Maaseik, which was then the first opponent (but this time in Belgium) also in the 2018 edition, hosting the opening match played on 5 December 2017 and won 3-1 by the yellow-blue.
THE FORMULA For the yellow-blue team, the match opens the group stage of the 2023 CEV Champions League; after the first qualifying rounds, the tournament gets into the thick of things, dividing the twenty participating teams in five Pools of four teams each. They will have to face each other in an Italian-style group with a two-legged tie. In the Main Phase the Italian system of points awards in the ranking is active, but the first distinguishing factor is the number of victories. At the end of this phase (the last match is scheduled for January 25th, 2023), the first-place team in each Pool accesses directly to the quarter finals, while the second-place finishers and the best third will enter the last sixteen, which will be characterized by two-legged direct matches. The Final will be played on May 21st, 2023 on a neutral field. From the same Pool, the match between Kedzierzyn-Kozle and Karlovarsko is also played this evening; with the Czechs then hosting Trentino Volley in a week (second round).
BACKGROUND During its long European campaign, Trentino Volley had never faced Decospan Vt Menen. The only formations from Belgium already faced are Maaseik (8 times), Roeselare (4) and Asse-Lennik (2); the total tally against teams of this nation is absolutely positive: 14 victories in as many official matches.
THE REFEREES The match will be managed by Tudor Pop, first referee from Cluj (Romania), and by Sonja Simonovska, second referee from Podgorica (Montenegro). Only Pop boasts previous matches with Trentino Volley, they are reported on November 4th, 2014 (3-1, in the CEV Cup in Novi Sad) and on March 16th during the 2022 calendar year (tie break lost, in the Champions League quarter finals in Berlin).
RADIO AND INTERNET The match will be broadcast live by Radio Dolomiti, media partner of Trentino Volley, from 8.30 p.m. Frequencies to listen to the regional network can be found at www.radiodolomiti.com, where it will also be possible to follow the radio report by live streaming. Even the live video streaming on discovery+ platform is planned; buying the Entertainment + Sport pass (monthly subscription is available for 7.99 euro a month). For more in-depth information on the usage thereof consult the site https://auth.discoveryplus.com/it/product. On the internet, point-to-point updates will be treated on CEV website (https://championsleague.cev.eu/en/match-centres/cev-champions-league-volley-2023/cev-champions-league-volley-2023-men/clvm-58-trentino-itas-v-decospan-vt-menen/), and by www.trentinovolley.it itself and will always be active on the yellow-blues team social networks (www.trentinovolley.it/facebook, www.trentinovolley.it/instagram and www.trentinovolley.it/twitter).
BOX OFFICE The match is included in both types of season tickets offered for this season by Trentino Volley (full and basic). It is still possible to purchase tickets for the single match at any time on the Internet by clicking https://trentinovolley.vivaticket.it/it/event/champions-league-2023-trentino-itas-vs-menen-belgio/194967. The vouchers will be also available on Thursday at the BLM Group Arena ticket offices, which will be operative starting at 7:30 p.m., the same time when the arena entrances will also open. The use of the mask is not mandatory to enter the stadium.

Trentino Volley Srl
Press Office