Luxembourg, February 27, 2019.  Three clubs from Russia - Zenit KAZAN, Zenit SAINT PETERSBURG and Dinamo MOSCOW, two teams from Poland - Trefl GDANSK and PGE Skra BELCHATOW, two sides from Italy - Cucine Lube CIVITANOVA and Sir Colussi Sicoma PERUGIA, and one squad from France - CHAUMONT VB 52 HM, have booked their tickets to the quarterfinals of the 2019 CEV Volleyball Champions League - Men.

•    Four of the five pool winners went through the six legs of the fourth round unbeaten. Zenit KAZAN topped Pool A, Cucine Lube CIVITANOVA won Pool B, Zenit SAINT PETERSBURG claimed the first place in Pool C and Sir Colussi Sicoma PERUGIA emerged victorious from Pool E.



•    The only pool winner who suffered losses along the way was Trefl GDANSK. In the all-Polish clash with PGE Skra BELCHATOW in the first leg, Trefl stepped on the wrong foot to start off with a four-set defeat.
•    Zenit KAZAN and Sir Colussi Sicoma PERUGIA both finished on 18 points and 18-4 sets, but the defending champions from Russia excelled on point ratio to become the best-ranked team among all in the pool stage.


The players of Zenit KAZAN celebrating their sixth win in Pool A

•    Cucine Lube CIVITANOVA lost only three sets in their six matches, but with two of them going away to Poland’s Zaksa KEDZIERZYN-KOZLE in the last leg, the Italian side finished with 17 points.
•    Wednesday’s race for the remaining three spots, those distributed to the three best-ranked pool runners-up was quite exciting through the end. Zaksa KEDZIERZYN-KOZLE were one point away from qualifying as they were two sets up and leading 24-20 in the third in their match at Cucine Lube CIVITANOVA, but this is where their dramatic fall started. After losing the set by a nail-biting 32-34, the Polish team went on to lose the match, thus smashing the door to the quarterfinals wide open for compatriots PGE Skra BELCHATOW, but failing to go through themselves.


CHAUMONT VB 52 HM’s libero Blair Cameron Bann in action

•    After managing a 3-1 away win at Slovenia’s ACH Volley LJUBLJANA, CHAUMONT VB 52 HM became the second-placed team with the best record – four wins and 13 points.
•    Dinamo MOSCOW shut out TOURS VB in France in their last Pool E game to finish second in the pool on four wins and 12 points.
•    With PGE Skra BELCHATOW and Zaksa KEDZIERZYN-KOZLE, each coming out on a 3-3 win-loss record, Skra took the edge with 11 points against Zaksa’s 10.
•    The Drawing of Lots for the quarterfinals is set to take place on March 1, 2019 at 13:00 CET (click here for more details).



Skra hammered out a straight-set victory on Wednesday, but had to tune into the game in Civitanova to eventually find out they made the quarterfinals


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