Kedzierzyn-Kozle (Poland), 06 March 2023

CEV Champions League, on Tuesday in Poland (8.30 p.m.) the first round of the quarterfinal

The quarterfinals of the 2023 CEV Champions League are coming close. After the Main Phase and the round of sixteen, the club top continental competition goes on with the second (out of three) appointment that will lead to the Final of May 21st (venue still to be formalized). Trentino Itas will compete again against the reigning champions of Grupa Azoty Kedzierzyn-Kozle; the first match will be played on March 7th in Poland. The kick off at the Azoty Arena is set for 8.30 p.m. (Italian hours): live on Eurosport 2 HD, Radio Dolomiti and discovery+.
HERE IS TRENTINO ITAS After having competed for the Supercoppa, Club World Championship and Coppa Italia matches, the yellow-blue team starts its journey in the last step of the top continental competition; in this case there is no direct elimination scenario at the end of a single match, but to try and take their chances of getting into the semifinals in the second round, scheduled for March 16th in Trento, they will need a great performance already on Tuesday night's match.
“It is yet another challenge in the last seasons with Kedzierzyn-Kozle, but compared to the past this one is held in an even different way, over the two-match distance – highlighted the coach Angelo Lorenzetti at the appointment presentation - . We face this match just forty-eight hours after the one against Padova, and that is an even more difficult situation, that would have been complicated anyways. Our opponents have recently won the Poland Cup, proving that they perfectly added the hitter spiker Bednorz to the team. As for us, we will try to achieve the best possible result, so that we can take part into the second-round match at the BLM Group Arena with the possibility to play in all and for all”.
Trentino Itas has a background of six victories out of six appointments in the competition, including the two gained against Kedzierzyn-Kozle in the pool phase, and eight successes out of the twelve official matches played in 2023. The team arrived in Poland already this morning and will complete their preparation in this evening's training session and Tuesday morning's training session at the Azoty Arena, where Trentino Volleyball will play its 980th match in its history (balance: 680 wins and 299 losses).
TRENTINO VOLLEY NUMBERS IN EUROPE In the ten previous participations in the Champions League, Trentino Volley has always succeeded in making it until the final scoreboard, and qualified for the quarterfinals in nine occasions. The only time that the team stopped at the round of sixteen was in the 2013 edition; it lost against Dinamo Mosca at the Golden Set. In six cases out of nine, the yellow-blue team went further to the quarterfinals, attaining therefore the semifinals: 2009, 2010, 2011 editions (all three closed by winning the trophy), 2012 edition (third place), 2016, 2021 and 2022 editions (second place). Taking into account all the European competitions played, Trentino Volleyball will on this occasion play its 162nd match in CEV competitions: the balance stands at 128 victories (65 in Trento, 63 away) and 33 defeats (27 in the Champions League, 5 in CEV and 1 in the Top Teams Cup). The most frequently achieved result is the 3-0, resorted to in 48.4 per cent of the cases (78 matches, 31 of them away); the least frequently achieved result is the 0-3 defeat (eight times).
FOURTH TIME IN POLAND FOR THE YELLOW-BLUE TEAM IN MARCH Tuesday’s match will renew the tradition for Trentino Volley’s away matches in Poland in March. The team had already played in this nation during the third month of the calendar year, in 2009 (4 March, 3-1 victory in Czestochowa - first time ever in Poland), 2010 (9 March, 3-1 in Rzeszow) and 2012 (17 and 18 March, in Lodz with 1-3 defeat in the semi-final against Kazan and 3-0 victory in the final for third place against Izmir). This one is the thirteenth away match ever in Poland for Trentino Volley, the most visited foreign country in the yellow-blue’s history, for a total amount of nineteen played matches, and just four of these lost.
THE OPPONENTS Grupa Azoty Kedzierzyn-Kozle awaits Trentino Itas's visit for the third remake of the competition's finals played in the previous two years, boasting one more trophy in their trophy cabinet than the last appointment with the yellow-blue team. During the 25th and 26th February-weekend in Cracow, the team coached by Tuomas Sammelvuo conquered the fourth consecutive Poland Cup, the tenth ever, defeating for 3-0 Jastrzebski Wegiel (the only other Polish team competing in the Champions League) in the final competition, led by the attack squad who scored 49 times: Kaczmarek (14), Bednorz (17) e Sliwka (18, Final Four mvp). The same one that, in the first half of February, had made it possible for the two-time reigning champions to qualify for the quarter-finals of the Champions League, knocking their compatriots from Zawiercie out of the competition with a three-set win on the road and a tie-break defeat at home. In the PlusLiga after twenty-five days, Zaksa is in fourth position, seven points behind the top position and is fresh from Saturday night's 3-1 home victory over Lubin. Here is Grupa Azoty Kedzierzyn-Kozle shortlist: 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. Bartosz 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 (outside-hitter) 22. Erik Thomas Shoji (libero), 71. Korneliusz Banach (libero), 99. Norbert Huber (middle-blocker). Coach Tuomas Sammelvuo.
THE FORMULA AND OTHER APPOINTMENTS Tuesday’s match counts as first round match of the 2023 CEV Champions League quarterfinals; in the second turn of the last scoreboard, the other five teams who won their respective pools will play too, and they will compete against the three teams who qualified for the round of sixteen. Clubs that win both matches will go forward to the next round; only in the case where the two teams have both won a match each in the tie break or in the case where they have both won a match each in no more than four sets, the Golden set to 15 will be played at the end of the second match. Other matches are Ankara-Cucine Lube (scheduled of Tueasday evening in Türkiye), Berlin-Perugia (Wednesday, 7.30 p.m.) and Friedrichshafen-Jastrzebski (Thursday, 7 p.m.).
THE BACKGROUND The two clubs have a long series of direct matches in the European Cups, so much so that Kedzierzyn-Kozle is the most faced foreign team by Trentino Volleyball, with twelve official matches, four in the last three editions. In addition to the two recent Finals (May 1st 2021 in Verona, 3-1 for the Poles and May 21st 2022 in Ljubljana, 3-0 for the Poles), the match was played in the pool phase of 2012, 2013 and 2018 Champions League editions and in the 2015 CEV Cup semifinals. The balance stands at 7-5 for Trento who, before the double success in the Pool D of this season (3-1 at home on November 29th 2022 and 3-2 in Poland on January 25th), had lost the last four direct matches: in addition to the previous match in Verona and Slovenia, there are also the matches played on December 20th 2017 in Poland (Zaksa's only home win) and then on February 14th 2018 at the BLM Group Arena. At the Azoty Arena Trentino Volley also played on December 22nd 2011 (victory in the tie break), November 21st 2012 (success in four sets) and March 24th 2015 (another victory in five sets).
THE REFEREES The match will be directed by the Estonian Salvis Kurtiss, first referee from Riga, and by the Portuguese Vitor Alexandre Goncalves, second referee from Porto. The only one of the two with previous experience is the Lusitanian, who refereed Trentino Diatec-Tours Vb 3-0 on December 2nd 2015 (pool phase match of 2016 edition).
TV, RADIO AND INTERNET The match will be reported live by Eurosport 2 HD, TV channel available on the digital terrestrial platform of Sky and on OTT by DAZN. Live coverage is planned on 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 in live streaming. Even the live video streaming on “discovery +” platform is planned; buying the “Entertainment + Sport” pass (monthly subscription is available for 7.99 euros 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-87-grupa-azoty-kedzierzyn-kozle-v-trentino-itas/), and by www.trentinovolley.it itself and will always be active on the yellow-blue team social networks (www.trentinovolley.it/facebook, www.trentinovolley.it/instagram and www.trentinovolley.it/twitter).

Trentino Volley Srl
Press Office