Luxembourg, February 17, 2020.  The excitement around this week’s race for the quarterfinal spots in the CEV Champions League will be further heated up by the start of the battles for the semifinal berths in both the women’s CEV Volleyball Cup 2020 and CEV Volleyball Challenge Cup 2020. The eight first-leg games of the quarterfinals of the two competitions are set to take place on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday in eight different countries across the continent.


CEV Cup

With all four of this week’s fixtures in Europe’s second most prestigious club competition taking place on Thursday, the match that undoubtedly sparks the most excitement is the clash between Russian powerhouse Dinamo Kazan and defending trophy-holders Unet e-work Busto Arsizio of Italy, scheduled to start at 19:00 local time in Tatarstan. In the previous round, Dinamo already disposed of one Italian opponent, 2019 Challenge Cup winners Saugella Monza, after two solid victories, while the squad from Busto Arsizio managed to eliminate Poland’s Developres SkyRes Rzeszow only in the golden set, prompted by the exchange of straight-set wins. Both teams are currently second in their respective domestic league standings. The clash between Dinamo and Unet e-work is a repeat of the 2017 CEV Cup final, claimed by the Russian team.

Olga Biryukova, outside spiker of Dinamo Kazan: “This will be our most important match this month! Of course, we are thinking about it more than any of the other games. We are quietly preparing for it, mentally and tactically.”

Stefano Lavarini, head coach of Unet e-work Busto Arsizio: “We are focused on the game in Kazan. It is difficult to plan our work well with so many commitments and trips, but we do our best to optimise our timing, always doing things with maximum intensity when necessary, and disconnecting in the few free moments between matches to restore our energy.”


Dinamo Kazan’s Olga Biryukova in action against Saugella Monza

Another team from the strong Superliga of Russia, Minchanka Minsk of Belarus, will perform in the CEV Cup on Thursday. They welcome France’s Volero Le Cannet in this week’s competition opener at 18:30 local time at the Uruchje Palace of Sport in the Belarusian capital.

Belgium’s Asterix Avo Beveren and Germany’s SSC Palmberg Schwerin will start their first-leg encounter at 19:30 local time at the Topsporthal in Beveren. Half an hour later, at the Dom Odbojke Bojan Stranic in the Croatian capital, hosts Mladost Zagreb and Poland’s Grupa Azoty Chemik Police will get the last match of the week underway.




Challenge Cup

The four first-leg quarterfinals in CEV’s third-tier club tournament are spread over the three competition days from Tuesday through Thursday.

The week will open with Hungary’s Swietelsky Bekescsaba’s home match against Greece’s Olympiacos Piraeus, set to start at 18:30 local time on Tuesday.

Wednesday’s programme features two games. First, the other Greek team in the competition, AO Thiras Santorini, will welcome German stronghold and national cup winners Dresdner SC at 19:30 local time. An hour later, also at 19:30 local time, the other German team, Ladies in Black Aachen, will entertain France’s Beziers VB. The visiting team Beziers VB, currently sitting in fourth place of the French Ligue A with 16 victories out of 21 matches, secured their spot in the quarterfinals by defeating Finnish team Pölkky Kuusamo 3-0 and 3-2 in the 8th Finals. The so-called Beziers Angels have represented France on the European stage for many years - since 2013. Last season, they took part in the elite Champions League with current German champions Allianz MTV Stuttgart as one of their opponents. The “witches cauldron” at the Neukoellner Strasse will open at 6 pm, tickets are still available online as well as in the gym before the match. For those who cannot make it to Aachen, a livestream will be provided on sporttotal.tv for fans in Germany and on eurovolley.tv internationally.

Thursday’s only match will start at 19:00 local time in Austria, where ASKO Linz-Steg will host European Cup rookies THY Istanbul of Turkey.




For more info, go to the CEV Cup 2020 and the CEV Challenge Cup 2020 sections.