Berlin (Germany), 20 February 2024

2024 CEV Champions League, on Wednesday first leg of quarter-finals in Germany

The quarter-finals of the 2024 CEV Champions League are underway. After the Main Phase and the Round of 16, the top continental club competition continues with the second (of three) double act leading up to the Final on May 5 th(venue still to be made official). For the third time in the last four editions Trentino Itas will find the German champions Berlin Recycling Volleys on their way in this stage of the draw; the first leg match will be played on Wednesday February 21st in Germany. At the Max Schmeling Halle kick-off is scheduled for 19.30 Italian time: live on Radio Dolomiti and DAZN.
HERE TRENTINO ITAS After playing in the Supercup, Club World Cup and Italian Cup, the yellow-blue line-up also begins their journey in the final phase of the highest continental trophy; In this case there is no possibility of direct elimination, at the end of a single match, but to try and play all their chances of accessing the semifinals in the return match, scheduled on February 29th in Trento, they will need a great performance already in the match on Wednesday evening, to which the Italian Champions arrive with the victory of the SuperLega regular season in their pocket (with two rounds in advance).
"We are going to experience a very very difficult match, but it could not be otherwise given that only the best eight teams are left in the race - stressed coach Fabio Soli - ,  Berlin is a strong and complete team, both for the recent past that it boasts in this competition and because it eliminated a tough opponent like Tours that we know well and against whom we struggled to get the better of during the group stage. The German roster is of quality and coach Banks has a lot of international experience; we will have to be able to put in quality and attention if we want to reach the gates of the European Olympus".
The only doubt for the yellow-blue coach concerns the condition of Kamil Rychlicki, who is struggling with a right shoulder problem that had also limited his performance in Sunday night's match against Modena. Trentino Itas arrives at the appointment with five victories out of six matches played in the competition and ten wins out of twelve official matches already played in the 2024 calendar year. The team reached Germany late Monday afternoon and will complete their preparation for the appointment with this evening's training session and Tuesday morning's training session at the Max Schmeling Halle, where Trentino Volley will play its 1,026th match in its men's history (balance: 716 wins and 309 losses).
TRENTINO VOLLEY'S NUMBERS IN EUROPE In the previous eleven Champions League participations, Trentino Volleyball has always managed to enter the final draw of the event, qualifying for the quarter-finals in nine cases. In the 2013 edition, the only time the Via Trener club's path stopped was in the round of 16; it was eliminated by Dinamo Moscow at the Golden Set. In seven out of nine cases, the yellow-blue team instead passed the quarter-final hurdle, thus reaching the semi-finals: 2009, 2010, 2011 editions (all three ended with the final trophy victory), 2012 (third place), 2016, 2021 and 2022 (second place). Taking into account all the European competitions played, Trentino Volleyball will on this occasion play its 169th match in CEV competitions: the balance is 134 victories (68 in Trento, 66 away) and 34 defeats (28 in the Champions League, 5 in CEV and 1 in the Top Teams Cup). The most frequently achieved result is the 3-0, which was resorted to in 48% of the cases (81 matches); the one that occurred the fewest number of times is the 0-3 defeat (eight times).
SIXTH TRANSFER EVER IN GERMANY This will be the sixth ever away match on German soil in the history of Trentino Volleyball, the fourth ever in Berlin where they had already played on December 18th 2013,  February 25th 2021 and March 16th 2022. The other previous matches:  January 12th 2011 and  February 9-10th 2021, also in Friedrichshafen. A record of three wins in six matches played.
THE Opponents The double success over Tours in the round of 16 (3-1 at home, 3-0 in France) has once again opened the door to the quarter-finals for Berlin Recycling Volleyball, the reigning German champions, thanks to their victory in the 2023 Scudetto Final in three matches (2-1) over their historic opponents VfB Friedrichshafen, who last season reached thirteen in the number of national title victories. The capital club is now in its fourth consecutive participation in the third-last round of the top continental tournament, an event in which its best result ever was third place in the 2015 edition, when it hosted the Final Four at home. The Orange players' palmares also includes six National Cups (they have already gained access to the 2024 Final, which will be played on 3 March against Herrsching), two Super Cups and a CEV Cup, won in 2016 when Roberto Serniotti was on the bench to lead the formation.The current roster, led by coach Joel Banks (who took the place of Frenchman Enard on the bench since last June) has changed little compared to last season; of the sextet that won the last Bundesliga there is no longer only middle blocker Brehme (who moved to Modena), replaced by Estonian Tammemaa (former Tours and Maaseik). In the roster there are some athletes who have recently played in the SuperLega: the outside hitters Schott (ex-Milan), Carle (ex-Vibo) and Taht (ex-Perugia) and the middle blocker  Krick (ex-Cisterna and Modena). They are currently in first place in the Bundesliga with 53 points and only two defeats in twenty matches played, the last one last Saturday in Karlsruhe (3-0 victory).During this edition of the Champions League it has already faced an Italian team twice: Piacenza (in both cases it was the Italians who won), in Pool C, which ended in third place. Berlin Recycling Volleys' roster: 1. Adam Kowalski (l), 2. Satoshi Tsuiki (l), 3. Robert Taht (sp), 4. Timo Tammemaa (mb), 5. Nehemiah Mote (mb), 6. Johannes Tille (st), 9. Timothèe Carle (sp), 10. Daniel Malescha (o), 11. Cody Kessel (sp), 12. Saso Stalekar (mb), 13. Ruben Schott (sp), 14. Leon Dervisaj (st), 17. Marek Sotola (o), 21. Tobias Krick (mb). Coach Joel Banks.
THE FORMULA AND THE OTHER MATCHES Wednesday's match is valid as the first leg of the quarter-finals of the 2024 CEV Champions League; in the second round of the final round, the five teams that won their respective groups will also take the field, challenging the three qualified from the round of 16. The clubs that win both matches will advance to the round; only in the event that the two teams have both won one match each in a tie break or in the event that they have both won one match each in no more than four sets will the Golden set to 15 be played at the end of the second match. The other three first leg matches are Halkbank Ankara-Cucine Lube (scheduled for Wednesday at 16:00 Italian time), Piacenza-Jastrzebski (Wednesday, 20:30) and Las Palmas-Ziraat Ankara (Thursday, 18:30).
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND Six official matches have already been played between Trentino Volleyball and Berlin Recycling Volleys; with a 4-2 result in favour of the yellow-blue club. On two of the three occasions played in the German capital, the club from via Trener had to reckon with a defeat: 3-0 on 18 December 2013 (group phase match) and 3-2 on 16 March in the last previous match (quarter-final return match). Trento's only victory in Berlin thus dates back to 25 February 2021 (3-1 victory in the first leg of the quarter-finals). In Italy, the hosts have only ever won: twice 3-0 (4 March 2021 and 10 March 2022) and once 3-1 (28 October 2013). The total balance with German teams, also taking into account matches played with Friedrichshafen and Haching, is eleven confrontations with eight wins and three defeats.
THE REFEREES The match will be directed by Bosnian Sinisa Ovuka, the first referee, and Liechtenstein's Aleksander Sikanjic, the second referee from Vaduz.Both have previous experience with Trentino Volleyball: Ouvka refereed Trentino Diatec-Cucine Lube Civitanova 2-3
on 11 April 2018 (return match of the Champions League quarter-finals), while Sikanjic refereed Knack Roeselare-ENERGY T.I. Diatec Trentino 2-3 on 11 March 2015 (return match of the Challenge Round of the CEV Cup), Dinamo Mosca-Trentino Itas 0-3 on 28 October 2020 (preliminary phase of the Champions League) and Lokomotiv Novosibirsk-Trentino Itas 0-3 on 9 February 2021 (group phase of the Champions League).
RADIO AND INTERNET The match will be broadcast live on Radio Dolomiti, Trentino Volleyball's partner radio station, starting at 19.30. 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 provided on DAZN, a platform available on a wide range of Internet-connected devices, including Smart TVs, PCs, smartphones, tablets and game consoles. Paid service, which 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-097-berlin-recycling-volleys-v-trentino-itas/), by www.trentinovolley.it and will also be active on the yellow-blue social networks (www.trentinovolley.it/facebook, www.trentinovolley.it/instagram and www.trentinovolley.it/twitter).

Trentino Volley Srl
Press Office