Trento, 14 December 2022

Thursday back on court for CEV Champions League at BLM Group Arena

CEV Champions League on stage for the third time this season at the BLM Group Arena: on Thursday, December 15th, the facility of Fersina Street in Trento will host the fourth round of Pool D of the group stage in the top Continental tournament, which will see Trentino Itas host the Czechs of ĈEZ Karlovarsko. The kickoff is scheduled at 8:30 p.m. Italian time: live on Radio Dolomiti and discovery+.
HERE ITAS TRENTINO The team returned from Brazil only on Tuesday afternoon, the yellow-blue team is training to get right back on the court, always at international level. The vice World Champions arrive at this appointment as leaders in the group standings (the only team still undefeated in the Pool) and have every interest in their own winning streak. Indeed, in case of a fourth consecutive success would come the mathematical qualification to the Playoffs of the tournament with two days in advance, because with such a result, at least the second position in the standings would already be safe, since the third one is precisely Karlovarsko, which would boast at that point only one victory with two rounds to go.
"We want to keep running in the Champions League, and the only way to do that is to win without leaving any points on the road," explained coach Angelo Lorenzetti at the presentation, ”We know very well the virtue of the opponent, who already knew how to put us in difficulty in the first match a month ago, but in front of our public we want to dictate our game; this is a delicate match, we have just returned from Brazil and we will have to carefully manage the energy at our disposal. So the mental component will have to make the difference."
The coach from Marche will have to do without Oreste Cavuto and will conclude the preparation for the match with training sessions, this afternoon and Thursday morning. The appointment will correspond with the 119th Champions League match in the history of Trentino Volley, the 964th ever; the tally in the single event is 91 victories (46 of which were obtained at home) and 27 defeats (of which only eight at the BLM Group Arena).
THE OPPONENTS ĈEZ Karlovarsko, a club based in the city of Karlovy Vary in the northwest of the country, arrives in Trento to open its Pool D return round, at the end of a period of mixed results.  In fact, if on the one hand the 3-0 home win obtained on December 30th against Menen guaranteed the first victory of the season in the European arena, on the other hand the 1- 3 obtained at the Sport Hall Indoor on Saturday night against Dukla Liberec forced Jiri Novak's team to the first defeat in the national championship after fourteen match-days and, above all, to leave the first place in the standings to the opponent that won over Karlovy Vary. Even more so, therefore, the Czech setter will be even more motivated in this circumstance to seek a prestigious result that can further boost his quotations. The roster of ĈEZ Karlovarsko: 1. James Weir (middle-blocker), 3. Daniel Pfeffer (libero), 4. Patrik Lamanec, 5. Adam Zajicek (middle-blocker), 6. Martti Juhkami (outside-hitter), 8. Wessel Keemink (setter), 9. Kewim Sasak (opposite), 11. Jan Kasan (setter), 12. Matej Pastrnak (outside-hitter), 13. Lukasz Wiese (outside-hitter), 14. Vojtech Patocka (middle-blocker), 15 Jakub Ihnat (outside-hitter), 21. Martin Kocka (setter). Coach: Jiri Novak.
THE SITUATION IN POOL D The matches scheduled for this round open the return leg of Pool D, currently led with full points by Trentino Itas with 3 wins and nine points, followed by Kedzierzyn-Kozle (2 wins and 6 points), Karlovarsko (1, 3) and Menen (0, 0). Tonight the match between the Poles, the hosts, and the Belgians will be played at 8:30 p.m.. At the end of this stage (the last match is scheduled for January 25th, 2023) the first-place ranked for each of the five groups will advance directly to the quarterfinals, while the second-place finisher and the best third from all groupings will qualify for the round of sixteen, which will be distinguished by direct matches with two-legged tie.
BACKGROUND The two teams have already met each other in three previous matches; in addition to the first leg match on November 16th in Karlovy Vary (Yellow-blue team success 1-3 with sets of 19-25, 20-25, 25-21, 13-25 and Lavia best scorer with 21 points), there are in fact on record the matches played in the group stage at the 2021 edition of the Champions League. Due to the pandemic, those matches were played within two groups: December 2nd, 2020 in Trento and February 10th, 2021 in Friedrichshafen (Germany); in both cases, the yellow-blue team won 3-1. The total tally against teams from the Czech Republic is absolutely positive for Trentino Volley: 9 victories in as many official matches, also taking into account the four wins over Ceske Budejovice and one victory against Pribram in the qualifying phase of the 2005 CEV Cup.
THE REFEREES The match will be managed by Pedro Lopes Pinto, first referee from Porto (Portugal), and by Zsolt Mezöffy, second referee from Budapest (Hungary). Both boast a previous match with Trentino Volley; the Lusitanian managed the home match against the Finns of Loimaa on January 18th, 2017 (second round of the 2017 CEV Cup round of 16, won in three sets), while the Hungarian referee managed the match Civitanova-Trento a 3-0 win on January 26th, 2020 (Champions League group stage).
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-64-trentino-itas-v-cez-karlovarsko/), 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-cez-karlovarsko/199494. 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