Trento, 24 January 2023

2023 CEV Champions League, on Wednesday Pool D will conclude in Poland

On Wednesday, January 25th, it will take place in the last round of the group stage of the 2023 CEV Champions League. On this occasion Trentino Itas will play its third continental away engagement, playing the sixth round of Pool D in Poland, host of the two-time reigning European Champions Grupa Azoty Kędzierzyn-Koźle. At the Azoty Arena the kickoff is scheduled at 8:30 p.m. Italian time: live on Radio Dolomiti and discovery+.
HERE TRENTINO ITAS Still with full score and already sure of concluding in first place in the round, a result that guaranteed direct access to the quarterfinals, the yellow-blue lineup is looking for another positive result to end with the best score possible in the first phase and thus be able to enter an easier part of the scoreboard on paper, given that the definition of the Playoffs grid is made taking into account the ranking of all qualifiers.
"Despite the guarantee of the first final place in Pool D we face this match with the utmost concentration and attention because we want to improve our score ahead of the final scoreboard" confirmed coach Angelo Lorenzetti at the match presentation, “It will not be easy to get a positive result on the court of the reigning European Champions, who in the meantime have been bolstered with the arrival of Bednorz, but we want to attempt also to continue on the right foot on our European path and gain further conviction, both mental and technical."
The Trentino Itas coach will have to do without Oreste Cavuto and Srecko Lisinac, who stayed in Trento to carry out a separated program ahead of upcoming important commitments. The Serbian middle blocker had left the court during the third set of Saturday night's match in Civitanova due to a lower back injury, so due to this situation the medical staff advised to spare him from the long continental away game, which will see Trentino Itas return only on Thursday night. So on the court there is again the Belgian middle blocker D'Heer, who played as a starter in the last two sets of the match with Cucine Lube and the entire previous Champions League match in Menen.
TWELFTH AWAY MATCH TO POLAND IN THE YELLOW-BLUE HISTORY
The current one is the twelfth away match ever for Trentino Volley to Poland, which is the foreign nation visited the most times in the yellow-blue club's history for a total of eighteen games played and just four lost. The first match ever played in this country dates back to March 4th, 2009 (3-1 victory in Czestochowa), while the last one dates back to December 2nd, 2018, 3-1 win over Cucine Lube Civitanova in final of the Czestochowa World Club Championship; when the Trener Street’s club won the international title for the fifth time. The yellow-blue club had never returned to this country since then. The event will represent the 161st European match in the club's history, the 121st ever in the Champions League.
THE OPPONENTS. Groupa Azoty Kędzierzyn-Koźle is waiting for Trentino Itas in view of the remake of two last semi-finals of the competition, with a totally different appearance compared to the one of end November 2022 at the BLM Group Arena. The middle blocker Smith and Huber, who are back in the team (out from the first round because of an injury) and the entry of the former Modena Bednorz’s server (who was involved in the Chinese championship few weeks ago) will allow the two-time reigning European Champions to get on court with further quality and performance skills, and they will seek a result that will close the pool phase in the best possible way. The team lost the chance to gain the first place because of the point lost in Czech Republic during the previous turn of the Pool D, but the success of Wednesday’s match is worth redeeming from a difficult period in PlusLiga. Last Thursday, the 1-3 defeat in Gdansk took even more away from the rankings’ top (now 10 points far away, place held by Resovia). Grupa Azoty Kędzierzyn-Koźle roster: 2. Lukasz Kaczmarek (opposite), 3. Kacper Kupczak (setter), 4. Przemyslaw Stepien (setter), 5. Marcin Janusz (setter), 6. Jakub Chwastyk (opposite), 7. Twan Wiltenburg (middle-blocker), 8. Adrian Staszewski (outside hitter), 9. Bartlomiej Kluth (opposite), 10. Batosz Bednorz (outside hitter), 11. Aleksander Sliwka (outside hitter), 15. David Smith (middle-blocker), 16. Tomasz Kalembka (middle-blocker), 19. Dmitrii Pashitskii (middle-blocker), 21. Wojciech Zalinski (s) 22. Erik Thomas Shoji (libero), 71. Korneliusz Banach (libero), 99. Norbert Huber (middle-blocker). Allenatore Tuomas Sammelvuo.
POOL D SITUATION. All rankings’ places were mathematically set in the previous turn, so the points to be won in the sixth and last Pool D match only affect the two teams competing in Poland; Trentino Itas and Grupa Azoty Kędzierzyn-Koźle both want to achieve the best possible result to appear in the first- and second-best team’s list. The other appointment, that will be in Menen at 8.30 p.m., between Decospan Vt and Karlovarsko, will not interfere in the team’s future, because the Czechs are already sure of keeping on with their path in the CEV Cup, where they will be on court in the quarterfinals as one of the third-placed teams of the pool phase; on the other hand, the Belgians will definitively say goodbye the European cups of this season.
THE BACKGROUND. The two clubs got a long series of direct competitions in the European Cups, and in fact, Kędzierzyn-Koźle is Trentino Volley’s most faced team counting ten official matches. Besides the two finals of the previous editions (May 1st 2021 in Verona – 3-1 for the Polish team and on May 21st 2022 in Lubiana – 3-0 for the Polish team), the duel was played in the pool phase of 2012, 2013 and 2018 Champions League editions and in the CEV Cup 2015 semi-final. The toll counts 6-5 for Trento who, before the first round of the pool phase (won 3-1 on November 29th), lost the last four direct matches: in addition to the previous one in Verona and in Slovenia, there also are the matches played on December 20th 2017 in Poland (Zaska’s only home victory) and then on February 14th 2018 at the BLM Group Arena. Matey Kaziyski is the one, who made a record against the Polish shortlist for Trentino Volley: on March 28th 2015, right against Zaska, the players made 8 individual aces in just one match and took home the success for 3-2. Trentino Volley played at the Azoty Arena on December 22nd 2011 (tie break victory), on November 21st 2012 (victory in four sets) and on March 24th 2015 (another victory in five sets).
THE REFEREES. Juray Mokry, first Slovakian referee from Martin, and Bruno Muha, second Croatian referee from Zagreb will be this match referees. Both have a background with Trentino Volley, but Mokry is the one who counts more; we have to remember Trento-Salonicco 3-1 on April 4th 2009 (Champions League final in Bolzano) and the Italian derbies Trento-Civitanova 1-3 on February 13th 2020 and Trento-Perugia 3-0 on March 18th 2021. Muha was referee of the yellow-blue team’s last Champions League appointment played in Menen (January 11th, victory in three sets).
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-67-grupa-azoty-kedzierzyn-kozle-v-trentino-itas/), 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).

Trentino Volley Srl
Press Office