Rzeszow (Poland), 12 December 2023

2024 CEV Champions League, Pool B first leg closes in Poland on Wednesday

The 2024 CEV Champions League returns to the court between today and Thursday for the third round of the Main Phase, the last of the first leg of Pool B. On Wednesday, Dec. 13, in Poland, Trentino Itas will play its second away match of the competition, facing Asseco Resovia Rzeszow. Kickoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. Italian time at the playing facility named RCWS Podpromie: live on Radio Dolomiti and DAZN.
TRENTINO ITAS Arrived in Poland in late Monday afternoon, coming directly from Modena, the Italian champions go in search of another positive result to end the first leg of their group undefeated and to turn the page immediately after the first loss of the season in SuperLega.
"In the summer, after the group draw, I had envisioned this as the most important away game of our first phase, and I confirm that impression even now - coach Fabio Soli stressed on the eve of the match - Despite the home loss suffered in the first round against Tours, Asseco Resovia is a tough team, with a complete and talented roster; I am sure they will put everything they have on the court to reopen the race for the top spot in the standings. For our part, we come to this appointment after a setback in Modena, which I hope may be useful to make us understand, even more, how crucial it is to keep the level of attention very high at all times and to improve our ability to perform well even in situations of heavy stress. Wednesday's will certainly be a compelling battle; we want to play it with determination and continue to make positive progress on our path of growth. Matches like these are why it is a joy to play in the Champions League."
Trento’s coach will be able to count on thirteen of the fourteen players on the roster; missing only opposite player Gabriele Nelli, who remained in Trento to treat the right knee injury that kept him in the pits last Sunday as well. Practices this evening and on the morning of game day at the facility will allow the team to take benchmarks for serving and receiving fundamentals and will also come in handy to check the group's physical condition in a period filled with travel and matches.
FOURTH TRANSFER TO POLAND IN GIALLOBLU’S HISTORY This is the fourteenth ever trip to Poland for Trentino Volley, the foreign nation visited the most times in the history of the Club; twenty matches were played, only five of which lost. The first ever match played in this country dates back to March 4, 2009 (3-1 win in Czestochowa), while the last one was last March 7 in Kedzierzyn-Kozle, when Trento lost the first leg of the quarterfinal match of the previous Champions League edition at the tie break. In Rzeszow, the yellow-blue Club has played four official matches, winning all of them: on March 9, 2010 and Nov. 29, 2018 by 3-0 against the hosts; on Nov. 26, 2018 by 3-0 against the Iranians of Ardakan; and on Nov. 28, 2018 by 3-1 against the Brazilians of Sada Cruzeiro in two group stage matches of that year's Club World Championship. This will be the 166th European match in the Club's history, the 126th ever in the Champions League.
THE OPPONENTS Wednesday night's match is a crucial one for Asseco Resovia Rzeszow's European journey. After losing at home to Tours in its debut last Nov. 23, the white-and-red club must in fact necessarily win to get back in the race for qualification. This season it resumed the CEV Champions League after six seasons of absence thanks to a third-place finish in the Play Off Scudetto 2023 (following first place in the regular season). In its palmares it counts seven Polish titles, three National Cups and a Super Cup (won in 2013, its last major success), but in the past, while not winning anything else, it has also often achieved important and prestigious placings at the international level, as shown by silver medals in the 1973 (it was defeated by CSKA Moscow) and 2015 (beaten by Kazan) Champions Cups and in the 1973 Club World Championship, where it also took the fourth place in 2018. Coach of the red and white lineup is Italian Giampaolo Medei (already on the bench of Civitanova in 2017 and 2018), who can count on the confirmation of the hard core of the roster from the previous season. Among the many notable names are those of Slovenian spiker Cebulj (formerly in Trento in the 2019/20 season), libero Zatorski (formerly Belchatow and Zaksa), middle blockers Kochanowski, Rejno (both formerly Kedzierzyn-Kozle) and Klos, and two other hammers: the American Defalco (formerly Vibo) and French Louati (formerly Padova and Monza). In PlusLiga after eleven rounds it is in third place of the standings with 24 points, the result of nine wins: the last one Monday night in the tie break against Radom. Asseco Resovia Rzeszow's roster: 1. Jonas Kvalen (s), 3. Michal Kedzierski (p), 4. Krzysztof Rejno (c), 5. Jakub Bucki (o), 6. Karol Klos, 7. Jakub Kochanowski (c), 8. Adrian Staszewski (s), 9. Stephen Boyer (o), 11. Fabian Drzyzga (p), 13. Michal Poter (l), 14. Yacine Louati (s), 16. Pawel Zatorski (l), 17. Bartlomiej Mordyl (c), 18. Klemen Cebulj (s), 59. Torey Defalco (s), 91. Jakub Dopart (p), 92. Konrad Szapakowski (c), 93. Bartosz Zych (s), 94. Milosz Wrobel (c). Coach: Giampaolo Medei.
THE SITUATION OF POOL B Trentino Itas is the only team still unbeaten and with full points in Group B of the Main Phase of the Champions League, thanks to two wins in as many matches played. At the same time as the match in Poland, Wednesday's match in Ljubljana is played between ACH Volleyball (zero wins) and Tours, which has a win like Asseco Resovia. The next round (fourth overall) is scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 21, and will see Trento-Tours and Rzeszow-Ljubljana.
THE PREVIOUS MATCHES Trentino Volley and Asseco Resovia had three official encounters, the first two in the 2010 edition of the CEV Champions League: in the then Playoffs 6, the Gialloblù won both in the home first match on March 3, 2010 by 3-0, and in the away match in Poland six days later (by 3-1). The most recent crossover, on the other hand, is the match in the first phase of the 2018 Club World Championship, also played in Rzeszow on November 29, 2018 and won 3-0 by Trento with set resulsts of 24-26, 23-25, 20-25. In total, there are twenty-five official matches played against teams from Poland by Trentino Volley, taking into account also the fourteen with Kedzierzyn-Kozle, the four challenges with Belchatow and the two with Czestochowa and Jastrzebski; the record is 18-7 for the yellow-blue team.
THE REFEREES The match will be directed by Pedro Lopes Pinto, the first Portuguese referee from Porto, and Kenneth Aro, the second Finnish referee from Tampere. The latter has never refereed a Trentino Volley match, while the Lusitanian has refereed on January 18, 2017 (3-0 home win against Loimaa in the CEV Cup round of 16) and December 14, 2022 (another home win in three sets, this time against Karlovarsko).
RADIO AND INTERNET The match will be broadcast live by Radio Dolomiti, Trentino Volley's partner radio station, starting at 6 p.m. Frequencies to tune in to the regional network can be found at www.radiodolomiti.com, where it will also be possible to listen to the live radio commentary in streaming.
Live video streaming is planned on DAZN, a platform available on a wide range of Internet-connected devices, including Smart TVs, PCs, smartphones, tablets and game consoles. The service is fee-based and requires registration; for more information www.dazn.com/it-IT/help.
On the Internet, point-to-point updates will also be taken care of by the CEV website (https://www.cev.eu/match-centres/2024-european-cups/cev-champions-league-volley-2024-men/clvm-47-asseco-resovia-rzeszow-v-trentino-itas/), by www.trentinovolley.it, and will also be active on Gialloblù social networks (www.trentinovolley.it/facebook, www.trentinovolley.it/instagram and www.trentinovolley.it/twitter).

Trentino Volley Srl
Press Office