Luxembourg, March 2, 2020.  There is little room left for mistakes as the direct elimination stages of the CEV Champions League Volley 2020 - Men begin on Wednesday and Thursday with the first-leg matches of the four quarterfinal playoffs. The last eight in Europe’s strongest club competition are eager to continue their successful campaign so far and make a step closer to advancing to the semifinals. The first encounter between three-time winners Trentino Itas of Italy and Poland’s Jastrzebski Wegiel has been selected Match of the Week.



In a remake of the 2011 Club World Championship final, Trentino Itas and Jastrzebski Wegiel will meet on Thursday at 20:30 local time at the BLM Group Arena in Trento. According to the latest information, spectators will be allowed to attend and the match will take place in normal conditions. Trentino reached the quarterfinals as the third-best ranked pool runner-up, just above the cut-off line. After losing twice to Italian compatriots Cucine Lube Civitanova, they finished second in Pool A on a 4-2 win-loss record and 10 points, and will play in the direct elimination stage for the ninth time out of nine participations. In the very tough company of Belgium’s VC Greenyard Maaseik and Russia’s Zenit Kazan, Jastrzebski Wegiel emerged on top of Pool C. The Polish standout took five wins and 15 points and became the only team from their pool to advance.

Head to head
• Trentino Itas and Jastrzebski Wegiel meet for the second time in the Champions League, after an encounter in the 2010-2011 semifinals.
• Trentino Itas reached the 2010-2011 Champions League final after defeating Jastrzebski Wegiel 3-0 in Bolzano.
• Trentino Itas have a W9-L4 record in the Champions League against Polish teams, but they lost their last two - 2-3 defeats against ZAKSA Kedzierzyn-Kozle in the 2017-2018 fourth round.
• Jastrzebski Wegiel won only two of their seven Champions League matches with Italian opposition - 3-1 against Sisley Treviso in the 2007-2008 group phase and 3-2 versus CoprAtlantide Piacenza in the 2009-2010 group phase.
• Trentino Itas defeated Jastrzebski Wegiel 3-1 in the 2011 Club World Championship final.

Trentino Itas
• Trentino Itas could reach the Champions League semifinals for the first time since 2015-2016, when they finished runners-up to Zenit Kazan.
• Trentino Itas won the Champions League three times, in three consecutive seasons from 2008-2009 through 2010-2011. Only Zenit Kazan (6) have won the Champions League more than three times.
• Trentino Itas lost their most recent Champions League match in Trent - 1-3 against Cucine Lube Civitanova on February 13. Trentino Itas have never lost successive home matches in the Champions League.
• Trentino Itas have lost three of their last seven Champions League home matches, after losing only three of their first 32 Champions League matches in Trento.
• Jenia Grebennikov was the second-best receiver in this season's fourth round - 36.7% perfect reception. Only Benfica Lisboa's Ivo Casas (40.7%) did better.
• Grebennikov (26.6%) also had the third-best reception efficiency in the fourth round, behind Cucine Lube Civitanova's Jacopo Massari (30.2%) and Benfica Lisboa's Ivo Casas (30.0%).
• Srecko Lisinac (63.6%) had the best spike efficiency of all players appearing in six fourth round matches this season.

Jastrzebski Wegiel
• Jastrzebski Wegiel are hoping to reach the Champions League semifinals for a third time, after 2010-2011 and 2013-2014.
• Jastrzebski Wegiel lost 2-3 to VC Greenyard Maaseik on February 19, after having won each of their first five Champions League matches of this season.
• Jastrzebski Wegiel could win more than two away matches in a Champions League season for the second time, after 2013-2014 (5).
• Only Sir Sicoma Monini Perugia's Oleh Plotnytskyi (17), Wilfredo Leon Venero (13) and Cucine Lube Civitanova's Robertlandy Simon Aties (11) have more aces in this season's fourth round than Christian Fromm (10).
• None of Fromm's teammates has produced more than five aces this Champions League campaign.
• Fromm is also Jastrzebski Wegiel's leading point-scorer this season on 75 points. Tomasz Fornal follows on 66 points.

Angelo Lorenzetti, head coach of Trentino Itas: "We'll face the team that managed to beat Zenit Kazan twice in the pool stage, ousting them from the competition. Facing them will be motivating and exciting. Playing the return match in Poland is a moment we must live intensely, because the public in that country is certainly very attractive and we understand how important the match is. But for now, let's just think about the challenge of playing at home with the aim of collecting the best possible result."



Should Trentino win their series with Jastrzebski Wegiel, it is quite possible that they will have an opportunity to take revenge from Cucine Lube Civitanova in the semifinals. Before that, however, Lube have to overcome the resistance of Belgium’s Knack Roeselare. For their first encounter, the defending Champions League title-holders visit Knack on Wednesday at 20:30 local time. About 2,000 spectators are expected to pack the stands at the sold-out Schiervelde. The Italians are one of three teams that went through the pool stage undefeated, emerging on top of Pool A with six wins and 18 points. The squad from Roeselare qualified for the quarterfinals as the second-placed team in Pool E, where they won four of their six matches and claimed 11 points. The game on Wednesday will be the 11th between these two teams in the Champions League. They have each won five of the previous 10. Knack and Lube have locked horns as many as 10 times in the CEV Champions League this far, recording five wins apiece in the process. In the 2006/2007 season, Knack won the away and home matches in the pool stage before later that same season, Lube beat the Belgians in the Playoffs 6. In the 2017-2018 season, Lube beat Knack twice while in the 2015-2016 campaign, the Belgians won their home match with 3-1.

Guido Declercq, Champions League organising director of Knack Roeselare: "The double confrontation with the Italian topper Cucine Lube Civitanova was an ideal draw for Knack. I think everyone should be satisfied. We will get world-class Volleyball at the Schiervelde with the champions of Italy, Europe and the world. For us it is also special that ex-Knack player Stijn D'Hulst is part of that world-class team. And the two matches will also be special competitions for our T2 Massimo Pistoia, because he got his Volleyball training there, as a player and as a trainer."



A clash between compatriots is possible in the other semifinal as well, if the two Russian Champions League rookies, Kuzbass Kemerovo and Fakel Novy Urengoy, find a way to overcome high-calibre opponents, such as Polamd’s ZAKSA Kedzierzyn-Kozle and Italy’s Sir Sicoma Monini Perugia, respectively.

Kuzbass and ZAKSA will open the competition week on Wednesday at 19:00 local time in Kemerovo. Kuzbass are the with the best record among all second-placed teams – 4-2 and 12 points in Pool B, while Pool E winners ZAKSA are with the best record among all first-placed teams, the only squad to have achieved an impeccable track of six wins, 18 points and 18-0 sets!



Russia will host the other first-leg match on this side of the bracket as well. Fakel Novy Urengoy are set to entertain Sir Sicoma Monini Perugia on Wednesday at 19:00 local time at the Dvorets sporta Zvezdniy. This is the only quarterfinal clash between two pool winners from the fourth round. Fakel topped Pool B on a 5-1 win-loss record and 13 points, while Sir Sicoma Monini tallied six victories and 18 points in Pool D.




All Champions League games are streamed live on EuroVolleyTV.
For more info on the competition, go to the CEV Champions League Volley 2020 - Men section.