Trento, 12 March 2024

Champions League, on Wednesday (8:30 p.m.) at ilT quotidiano Arena Semifinal home match

Semifinal time for the 2024 CEV Champions League. After the Main Phase and the quarterfinals, the top continental club competition continues with the last double round of matches leading to the May 4/5 Final (venue yet to be determined). For Trentino Itas the time comes again for the Italian derby with Cucine Lube Civitanova; the first leg match will be played on Wednesday, March 13 at the ilT quotidiano Arena in Trento. Kickoff scheduled for 8:30 p.m.; live on Radio Dolomiti and DAZN.
HERE TRENTINO ITAS Conquered on Sunday afternoon in Modena the 2-0 win in the quarterfinals of the Play Off Scudetto, the Italian Champion lineup returns to devote itself to its European adventure, preparing to play (two years later) a Champions League semifinal, coincidentally precisely against an Italian team as it had already happened to it the last two times (in that case against Perugia).
"To have made it this far in the event makes us proud, because it was one of our goals, but obviously we don't want to stop right now and we will do everything to get through the round - explained coach Fabio Soli - . We will have to cope with the absence of Sbertoli, but the team has shown that it has its own connotation even with Acquarone in the director's booth and so we will try to give our best also in this double challenge, well knowing that in front of us we will face a version of Civitanova even stronger than the one we usually see in the league, because it will not have to limit the use of foreign players in its sextet. So we know that a particularly difficult task awaits us, also because we will play the return match away, but now we look only at the first match with the goal of getting a result that leaves open the possibility of qualifying in the challenge eight days later".
Trentino Itas arrives at the appointment having won seven of the eight games played in the competition (only loss in the tie break with Resovia on January 17 at home). The Trentino coach will have to do without only starting director Sbertoli and put French player Garcia on the roster in his place, who was also signed last week for this event. Among the fourteen available players Nelli, D'Heer, Michieletto, Cavuto, Lavia, Rychlicki and Podrascanin have previously played in a semifinal of the competition; the other seven are all rookies at this level.
TRENTINO VOLLEY'S NUMBERS IN EUROPE What opens on Wednesday is the eighth Champions League semifinal in the history of Trentino Volleyball. Since, that is, since 2021, the penultimate act of the tournament has been structured 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 yellow-blue semifinals), Trentino Volleyball has always crossed an Italian team at this point of the scoreboard. In fact, the challenge with Civitanova comes after the 2021 and 2022 semifinals played against Perugia. The club from via Trener has, by the way, a particular feeling with 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), 2021 (3-0 and 2-3 with Perugia) and 2022 (3-2 and 2-3 with Perugia, golden set winning). The only knockout is related to 2012 (1-3 with Kazan). The other double-round semifinals played in European competitions by Trentino Volleyball are those referring to the CEV Cup participations: 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).
Taking into account all continental competitions played, Trentino Volleyball has so far taken the court for 170 official matches: 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 achieved result is 3-0, resorted to 49% of the time (83 matches); the one that occurred the fewest number of times is 0-3 defeat (eight times).
FIFTH ITALIAN DERBY IN SEMIFINAL 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 file: April 4, 2009 in Prague (Czech Republic, success in three sets at the O2 Arena) and April 16, 2016 in Krakow (Poland, 3-0 success at the Tauron Arena). In total, there are sixteen confrontations with other tricolour teams in the European cups, also taking into account the double match in the 2012 Champions League quarterfinals with Macerata, the two with Piacenza in the 2017 CEV Cup quarterfinals, the two matches with Civitanova in the 2018 Champions quarterfinals, the two matches in the 2020 Champions group stage also with Lube, and six confrontations with Perugia in the Champions League between the 2021 and 2022 semifinals and the 2022 day phase.
THE OPPONENTS Cucine Lube Civitanova regains its place in the semifinals of the top continental competition five years after the last time, when it made it past the round and then won the trophy (the second in its history) thanks to its success in the Final in Berlin against Kazan. For the Marche-based club, this is the eighth semifinal overall, in which only in three circumstances has it then pulled away from qualification to the last act, and it comes in the middle of the Scudetto Play Off quarterfinal series that sees it down 0-2 with Vero Volley Monza. The 1-3 double loss to the Brianzoli has put Blengini's team's backs to the wall, forced to win Game 3 on Sunday to avoid dropping out of the Scudetto race. Before that match, however, there will be the trip to Trento, a match in which he will be able to use all his firepower without any kind of limitation in the number of foreigners to be deployed on the court at the same time (which instead happens in the Italian league). The coach of the red-and-whites will therefore likely bet on the high-ball trio Lagumdzija (already 134 points in the competition), Nikolov and Yant (great protagonists of the double success in the quarters against Halkbank Ankara), being able to use at the same time also the French middle blocker Chinenyeze.
THE FORMULA AND THE OTHER SEMIFINAL Wednesday's match is valid as the first leg match of the 2024 CEV Champions League semifinals; in the penultimate round of the final draw, the best four teams in Europe will in fact compete in a double-header, from which will arise the names of the two teams that will play the Final on May 4 or 5 at a venue yet to be determined. The teams 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 return match is played on Thursday, March 21 in Marche, while the other semifinal match is Jastrzebski-Ziraat Ankara (first leg Wednesday at 8:30 p.m.).
THE BACKGROUND Cucine Lube is the opponent that Trentino Volleyball has faced the most times: 97 official meetings with a 53-44 tally in favor of the Marche, but in the current season the situation is in favor of the yellow-blue who have won both SuperLega matches: 3-0 on December 3 at the Eurosuole Forum and 3-1 on February 18 at the dailyT Arena.The pairing in a semifinal 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 semifinal challenges 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 yellow-blue’s record is four passes in the round and seven eliminations.
THE REFEREES The match will be directed by Ivaylo Ivanov, the first Bulgarian referee from Sofia, and Romanian Tudor Pop (from Cluj). Both have previous records against Trentino Volleyball, but Ivanov has the most: on Jan. 13, 2022 in the 3-0 home win over Cannes, on Dec. 10, 2021 in the tie break loss to Lube in Betim, on Dec. 9, 2021 in the three-set win over Foolad, on Dec. 12, 2012 in the 3-1 win in Belgrade over Red Star, and on Dec. 21, 2022 in the 3-0 win over Tours. Pop, on the other hand, refereed the Yellow-blacks on Nov. 4, 2014 (3-1 win in Novi Sad in CEV Cup) March 16, 2022 (tie break defeat in Berlin in Champions League quarterfinals) and Nov. 10, 2022 (3-0 home win over Menen).
RADIO AND INTERNET The match will be broadcast live on Radio Dolomiti, Trentino Volleyball's radio partner, starting at 8:30 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 live radio commentary streaming.
Also planned is live video streaming 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 curated from the CEV website (https://trentinovolley.vivaticket.it/it/event/semifinale-cev-champions-league-2024-trentino-itas-civitanova/231686), from www.trentinovolley.it, and will also be active on the Gialloblù social networks (www.trentinovolley.it/facebook, www.trentinovolley.it/instagram and www.trentinovolley.it/twitter).
TICKETING The match is included in the Full season ticket type only. However, it is possible to purchase tickets for the single challenge at any time on the Internet by clicking https://trentinovolley.vivaticket.it/it/event/semifinale-cev-champions-league-2024-trentino-itas-civitanova/231686. Coupons will also be available on Wednesday at the ilT quotidiano Arena cash desks, active starting at 7:30 p.m., the same time when the arena entrances will also open.

Trentino Volley Srl
Press Office