Trento, 15 March 2023

Champions League, Quarter Final second leg at BLM Group Arena on Thursday (8:30 p.m.)

The return match of the 2023 CEV Champions League quarterfinals, the second of three double-elimination rounds before the Finals in Turin (May 20th), will be played on Thursday, March 16th at the BLM Group Arena in Trento. Trentino Itas will host the defending champions Grupa Azoty Kędzierzyn-Koźle with the goal of overturning the 3-2 win obtained by the Polish players in the first leg away match played eight days ago. Kickoff is scheduled at 8:30 p.m.; live on Eurosport 2 HD, Radio Dolomiti and discovery+.
HERE TRENTINO ITAS The yellow-blue team will return to play a home Champions League game, three months after the last previous one (3-0 win over Karlovarsko, on December 15th, 2022), aiming to get another positive result to detach qualification to the semifinals of the competition, an intermediate goal that has always been achieved in the last two editions. To actually accomplish this will require a maximum four-set win or a tie break success and affirmation in the claim of the golden set tiebreaker as well. "The first leg match was hard-fought and full of overturning, proclaiming a result that leaves the qualification games open and gives us a few more chances than we could have had in the event of a four-set knockout" explained coach Angelo Lorenzetti presenting the match; “We will have to play a great game to get the better of a very compact team, which always plays effective volley game and never goes down a certain level. We will give everything because we want to continue our European run."
Trentino Itas arrives to the game strong of the season home unbeaten streak in the competition and with behind them the good performance offered in front of their own audience only last Sunday against Modena (3-0 that earned the second final place in the SuperLega rankings). The entire yellow-blue lineup will be there for the game, which will coincide with the 209th international match in its history (balance 167 wins, 41 defeats), the 122nd ever in the Champions League. In front of its own public in this competition, the Trener Street’s club has played a total of 55 matches, losing only eight (last time on April 7th, 2022 with Perugia).
THE OPPONENTS Grupa Azoty Kędzierzyn-Koźle peeps out in Trento a little less than four months since the last time (first leg match of the second third day of Pool D) with the goal of conquering the BLM Group Arena by any score (a challenge that has previously succeeded twice in five previous matches) to be able to reach the qualification to the semifinals for the third season in a row and continue to defend the two continental champion titles won consecutively between 2021 and 2022. As happened to Trentino Itas, the Polish players will arrive to the game after playing a three-set home match for the national championship the previous weekend; however, in this case came a 0-3 defeat to Belchatow that caused the coach Tuomas Sammelvuo’s team to slide to fifth place in the PlusLiga standings. Grupa Azoty Kędzierzyn-Koźle's roster: 2. Lukasz Kaczmarek (o), 3.Kacper Kupczak (p), 4 Przemyslaw Stepien (p), 5. Marcin Janusz (p), 6. Jakub Chwastyk (o), 7. Twan Wiltenburg (c), 8. Adrian Staszewski (s), 9. Bartlomiej Kluth (o), 10. Bartosz Bednorz (s), 11. Aleksander Sliwka (s), 15. David Smith (c), 16. Tomasz Kalembka (c), 19. Dmitrii Pashitskii (c), 21. Wojciech Zalinski (s) 22. Erik Thomas Shoji (l), 71. Korneliusz Banach (l), 99. Norbert Huber (c). Coach: Tuomas Sammelvuo.
TRENTINO ITAS QUALIFIES FOR SEMIFINALS IF... To get through the round the yellow-blue lineup need to win at most in four sets (thus 3-0 or 3-1) Thursday night's match; in case they succeed in the tie break then the golden set will be played at the end of the match (tiebreaker set at 15) while in case the Poles win by any score it will be Kędzierzyn-Koźle who will get the qualification. Whoever makes it through the round will face the winner of the match between Perugia and Berlin in the semifinals (the return match will be played tonight after the Umbrians players won 3-1 in the first leg match in Germany).
THE FORMULA AND OTHER MATCHES Thursday's match will be valid for the return leg of the quarterfinals of the 2023 CEV Champions League; from this series of matches as early as Thursday night will generate the names of the four teams that will play the semifinals, again with round first leg match (on March 29th) and return leg match (on April 5th). Qualifying for the next round is the team that gets the highest number of points over the course of the double matches; points are awarded as in the championship: 3 for a 3-0 or 3-1 win, 2 for tie break success, 1 for tie break loss. The Final will be played in a single match in Turin on May 20th. In addition to Perugia-Berlin (at 8 p.m.), the other matches featuring in the lower part of the scoreboard are also being played tonight: Jastrzebski-Friedrichshagen (at 6 p.m., gone 3-0) and Cucine Lube Civitanova-Ankara (8:30 p.m., first leg 1-3).
THE BACKGROUND With 13 previous official matches, Zaksa represents the foreign team faced the most times by Trentino Volley. The tally is 7-6 for Trentino Volley, which has won two of the three matches played in the current edition of the tournament: 3-1 at the BLM Group Arena on November 29th and 3-2 in Poland on January 25th. The first leg match played on March 7th, was won by the hosts Grupa Azoty 3-2 (25-22, 22-25, 22-25, 25-21, 15-10). Five matches between the two clubs have been played at the Fersina Street’s facility with three wins by the hosts (3-0 on November 14th, 2012, 3-1 on March 28th, 2015, and 3-1 last November 29th) and two by the Polish team (also tiebreaks, December 14th 2011 and February 14th, 2018). Thursday's will be the sixth game in the last three editions of the top continental tournament (2-3 balance). In total, there are twenty-four official matches played against teams from Poland by Trentino Volley, also taking into account the four matches with Belchatow, three with Rzeszow and two with Czestochowa and Jastrzebski; the total tally is 17-7 for the yellow-blue team.
THE REFEREES The match will be managed by Slovakian referee Igor Schimpl, first referee from Bratislava, and by the Hungarian referee Peter Szabo, second referee from Budapest. Both boast a previous match with Trentino Volley relating to the group stage of the current edition of the tournament: Szabo refereed the match won (3-1) by the yellow-blue team in Karlovy Vary on November 16th, while Schimpl was second referee curiously in the match between Trento and Kędzierzyn-Koźle on November 29th at the BLM Group Arena (which ended 3-1 also in that case).
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 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-88-trentino-itas-v-grupa-azoty-kedzierzyn-kozle/), 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).
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-kedzierzyn-4th-finals/203482. The vouchers will be also available on Thursday at the BLM Group Arena ticket offices, which will be operative starting at 7:15 p.m., the same time when the arena entrances will also open.

Trentino Volley Srl
Press Office