Ljubljana (Slovenia), 09 January 2024

CEV Champions League, on Wednesday last away fixture of Pool B in Slovenia

The 2024 CEV Champions League returns to the court during this week to support the fifth round of the Main Phase, the first of the 2024. On Wednesday 10 January, in Slovenia, Trentino Itas will play the third and final away match of Pool B, hosted by ACH Volley Ljubljana. Kick-off scheduled for 6:00 p.m. Italian time at the Sportna Dvorana Tivoli venue: live on Radio Dolomiti and DAZN.
HERE TRENTINO ITAS Already certain of qualification for the final phase of the tournament with two rounds ahead of the natural conclusion of the group phase, the Italian Champions face their second external engagement of 2024, with the objective of securing the first place in the standings that they have occupied since the first day. In order to do so, they will need to conquer at least one more point, bearing in mind that the Gialloblù boast two victories and a six-point advantage over the first pursuers Tours and Rzeszow. The goal would be particularly important, because it would allow Trento to qualify directly to the quarter-finals, avoiding the double round of the round of 16 ( January 30th -  February 8th), which is played by the five second-place teams and the best third of the group stage.
"The very intense period that we are experiencing in a specific part of our season reminds us how important it is to be able to focus on the different objectives that we are pursuing at the same time; now comes the time to turn all our attentions to the Champions League - stressed coach Fabio Soli on the eve of the match - . In Slovenia we will take the field to express ourselves with quality, in order to try to close the discourse related to the definitive first place in the round as soon as possible. Although the standings may suggest otherwise, I believe that Wednesday's match is a tricky one, because we will be playing on a hot pitch and against a team that will be able to express themselves in a loose manner, as they are no longer in the running for qualification. We will therefore have to remain very focused and continue our play. We want it, but the system that leads to the definition of the final table also imposes it on us; we will need the maximum commitment".         
The Trentino Itas coach will have to do without only the opposite Gabriele Nelli, who remained in Trento to carry out differentiated work, and who will be replaced in the list of fourteen players to be handed over to the CEV by Davide Brignach, an equal role player from the youth sector and UniTrento Volley in Serie B. The training sessions this evening and on the morning of the match day in the training facility will allow the team to take the benchmarks for the hitting and receiving fundamentals and will also be useful to check the physical condition of the group in a period full of travel and matches.
THIRD TRANSFER TO SLOVENIA IN YELLOW-BLUE HISTORY This is the third ever trip to Slovenia for Trentino Volleyball, which returns to set foot in Ljubljana just over a year and a half after the previous occasion, again relating to a Champions League match: May 22nd 2022, the final against Kedzierzyn-Kozle lost in three sets at the Stozice Arena. Before that match, the Yellow-blue had only played one other official match on Slovenian soil, again in Ljubljana but in that case Sportna Dvorana Tivoli, the facility where Wednesday's match will also be played:  January 21st 2009, match of the sixth round of Pool E of the 2009 CEV Indesit Champions League won 3-1 over the hosts of ACH Bled (today ACH Volley Ljubliana).
THE OPPONENTS Wednesday evening's match will be the last home game of ACH Volley Ljubljana's 15th participation in the Champions League. As in the previous season, the Slovenian champions' run will stop at the group stage, where they have so far failed to score a single point, losing all four matches played. The club from the capital, which counts nineteen national titles and fourteen Slovenian cups, nevertheless boasts a good tradition in the international field, having already won thirteen Mevza Cups (the Central European international trophy) and one Top Teams Cup, won in 2007 by beating Modena in the final at PalaPanini.The best result achieved in the Champions League thus remains that of the 2009/2010 season, in which they gained access to the Final Four and then finished fourth. Wednesday's match will be the first in 2024 for the orange-blues, who haven't been on court since 23 December last year; that 3-2 victory over Calcit allowed the defeated team, until then the authentic dominator of the season in their homeland, to take the lead in the classification with 38 points. Compared to the first match, the only new face should be Korean libero Song, signed in December; the starter remains ex-Ravenna player Kovacic. ACH Volley Lubljana's roster: 1. Primoz Mejal (st), 3. Jost Krzic (mb), 5. Alen Sket (sp), 6. Nejc Najdic (st), 8. Luka Marovt (sp), 9. Klemen Sen (sp), 11. Daniel Koncilja (mb), 13. Jani Kovacic (l), 14. Nikola Gjorgiev (o), 15. Jaka Sesek (o), 16. Jan Pokersnik (sp), 17. Matic Videcnik (mb), 44. Mingenun Song (l). Coach Radonvan Gacic.
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 four victories in as many matches played. To be sure of first place in the grouping it will be enough to win two sets in Wednesday's match in Ljubljana. Tonight at 8.30 p.m. in Tours (France) is the match between the hosts and Rzeszow, teams paired in second place with two wins and six points. The next round (sixth and final) is scheduled for Wednesday, January 17th, with the challenges Trento-Rzeszow and Tours-Ljubljana. The first placed team advances to the quarter-finals, while the second placed team advances to the round of 16, and possibly the third if they have the best ranking compared to all the thirds of the other four groups.
BACKGROUND. During its long European campaign Trentino Volley has faced ACH Volley Ljubljana four times, winning in all cases. Two of these in the 2009 edition of the CEV Champions League (the first ever in which it took part): 3-0 in Trento on November 8th 2008, and 3-1 in Slovenia on January 21st 2009. Again by 3-1 the success in the semifinal of the following edition, played on 1 May 2010 in Lodz (Poland); in four sets the epilogue of the first match of the current Pool B, played on 23 November 2023 and closed with scores of 25-15, 20-25, 25-18, 26-24 (Rychlicki mvp and best scorer with 28 points).
THE REFEREES The match will be directed by Ksenija Jurkovic, the first Croatian referee from Split, and by Benedikt Geukes, the second German referee from Stuttgart. The latter is also the only one of the two with previous experience with Trentino Volleyball, who was in charge during the 3-1 home win over Zaksa Kedzierzyn-Kozle in the 2015 CEV Cup semi-final return leg (28 March 2015).
RADIO AND INTERNET The match will be broadcast live by Radio Dolomiti, Trentino Volley's partner radio station, starting at 6 pm. The frequencies to tune in to the regional network can be found on the website www.radiodolomiti.com, where it will also be possible to listen to the live radio commentary in streaming.
Live video streaming is also 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 chargeable and requires registration; for more information www.dazn.com/it-IT/help.
On the Internet, point-to-point updates will also be provided by the CEV website ( https://www.cev.eu/match-centres/2024-european-cups/cev-champions-league-volley-2024-men/clvm-51-ach-volley-ljubljana-v-trentino-itas/), by www.trentinovolley.it  and will also be active on the yellow-blue’s main social networks (www.trentinovolley.it/facebook, www.trentinovolley.it/instagram and www.trentinovolley.it/twitter).

Trentino Volley Srl
Press Office