Luxembourg, April 24, 2017. Germany’s BERLIN Recycling Volleys will be making this weekend their second appearance in the final stage of Europe’s elite club competition – and they will be doing so after causing a number of sensations on the road to Rome.

Actually, the BR Volleys started their campaign with a sensation right from the first match they contested back in early December when they rallied to a home victory over Italy’s giant Cucine Lube CIVITANOVA. They eventually made it through what everyone had dubbed the ‘group of death’ since their pool in the League Round featured, next to Cucine Lube, Polish powerhouse Asseco Resovia RZESZOW as well.

However, the real sensations were still to follow – and the BR Volleys were on the brink of elimination already in the Playoffs 12 after losing to ISTANBUL BBSK in Turkey (2-3) and trailing 0-2 in their rematch in Berlin. However, before a huge, raucous crowd they came from behind to sweep three sets in a row and the all-deciding Golden Set to progress to the Playoffs 6.

There, the team from Germany’s capital caused two more sensations – with two tiebreak wins over Dinamo MOSCOW. The more sensational of the two wins for the Germans came probably in Moscow where they emerged victorious from a battle that lasted for 149 minutes to book a ticket to Rome – something only a few would have predicted at the beginning of the season.

Once they travel to Rome later this week, the BR Volleys will be trying to seize their third European medal in as many seasons – they won Champions League bronze on home soil in 2015 and last year went on to seize the CEV Cup title to add another chapter to their success story.

The cosmopolite, multinational roster of the BR Volleys will see some familiar faces on the other side of the net once on Saturday they take to the court of Palalottomatica for the first of two semi-finals. Their opponent will be a Russian armada, Zenit KAZAN – the four-time winners (2008, 2012, 2015 and 2016) of the CEV Volleyball Champions League who have dropped only two sets so far in the competition.

The semi-final will be a remake of the match these two teams played at Max-Schmeling-Halle in 2015 – when Zenit KAZAN rallied to a 3-1 win on the way to their third title in the competition. The BR Volleys have nothing to lose – and they have showed a few times already that they can use to their advantage the role of underdogs. Only time will tell if they can pose a threat to Zenit KAZAN and repeat the sensation caused by VfB FRIEDRICHSHAFEN in 2007, the only German team to date to have stood on top of the Champions League podium – doing so on Russian soil…

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