Trento, 01 March 2024

Champions League, statistical notes and curiosities after qualification for the semifinal

Some statistics and curiosities that emerged after Trentino Volleyball's qualification for the semi-finals of the 2024 CEV Champions League, which came off on Thursday evening thanks to a 3-0 win over Berlin.

THIRD CHAMPIONS LEAGUE "DOUBLE SEMIFINAL", ALWAYS AGAINST AN ITALIAN. The double success over Berlin guaranteed qualification for the eighth Champions League semi-final in the history of Trentino Volleyball. Since when, i.e. since 2021, the penultimate act of the tournament has been based on a double confrontation (home first leg, away return) and no longer on a single match to be played on a neutral court during a Final Four (as happened in the first five Gialloblù semifinals), Trentino Volley has always met an Italian team. The challenge with Civitanova in fact succeeds the 2021 and 2022 semi-finals played against Perugia. The club from via Trener has, among other things, a particular feeling for the semifinals of the event, having managed to pass the round and thus qualify for the final in six of the previous seven circumstances: 2009 edition (3-0 over Macerata in Prague), 2010 (3-1 over Bled in Lodz), 2011 (3-0 over Jastrzebski), 2016 (3-0 over Civitanova) and 2021 (3-0 and 2-3 with Perugia). The only knockout came in 2012 (1-3 with Kazan). The other double-round semi-finals played in European competitions by Trentino Volleyball are those related to their participation in the CEV Cup: 2015 edition (3-2 and 3-1 over Kedzierzyn-Kozle), 2017 (3-0 and 2-3 over Fenerbahce) and 2019 (3-0 and 3-1 over Olympiacos).

FIFTH ITALIAN DERBY IN THE SEMI-FINALS. In four of the previous seven Champions League semifinals, Trentino Volleyball had already played an Italian derby; in addition to those of 2021 and 2022 against Perugia, there are also two other challenges with Lube on record: 4 April 2009 in Prague (Czech Republic, success in three sets at the O2 Arena) and 16 April 2016 in Krakow (Poland, success 3-0 at the Tauron Arena).

12TH SEMI-FINAL AGAINST LUBE. The pairing in a semi-final of a competition with Civitanova has now become a constant, even in the international arena. In total, Trentino Volleyball and Cucine Lube already have eleven semi-final matches behind them, distributed in this way: once in the Club World Cup (2021), twice in the Champions League (2009 and 2016), four times in the Play Off Scudetto (2010, 2019, 2021, 2022), three times in the Italian Cup (2016, 2019 and 2020) and once in the Italian Super Cup (2020). The Gialloblù's tally is four passages of the round and seven eliminations.

ILT DAILY ARENA ALWAYS HOSTILE TO GERMAN TEAMS. Trento's sports hall continues to remain bewitched for German teams: Thursday's match brings the total number of defeats that German teams have suffered in Trento to seven, also taking into account the losses suffered by Haching (two) and Friedrichshafen (one). Four are precisely the setbacks suffered by Berlin, who had also lost in Trento on 24 October 2013 3-1, on 25 February 2021 3-0 and on 10 March 2022 always in three sets.

THE NUMBERS IN THE EUROPEAN CUPS. This is Trentino Volleyball's thirteenth ever participation in the CEV Champions League, the eighteenth in Europe. The club of via Trener has in fact participated during the 2004/05 season without too much luck first in the Top Teams Cup (where it was eliminated by the Dutch Ortec Nesselande Rotterdam in the preliminary phase played at PalaTrento) and then in the CEV Cup, a trophy won in 2019 and also characterised by two finals lost at the golden set (in 2015 with Moscow, in 2017 with Tours). Taking into account all the European competitions played, Trentino Volleyball has played 170 official matches so far: the balance is 136 victories (69 in Trento, 67 away) and 34 defeats (28 in Champions League, 5 in CEV and 1 in Top Teams Cup). The most frequently obtained result is the 3-0, resorted to in 49% of the cases (83 matches); the one that occurred the least number of times is the 0-3 defeat (eight times). Taking into account also the ten participations in the Club World Cup (between 2009 and 2014 and then in 2016, 2018 and 2021), the number of international matches played by the club from via Trener is 216 in total: 136 away, 80 in Trento.

Trentino Volley Srl
Press Office