Race towards men’s Super Final heats up as semis up on agenda
Preview
Both first-leg matches of the semifinal stage in the CEV Champions League Volley 2021 - Men are set to take place on Thursday as Russia’s Zenit Kazan host Poland’s Grupa Azoty Kedzierzyn-Kozle at 19:00 local time in Tatarstan and Trentino Itas Trento welcome compatriots Sir Sicoma Monini Perugia at 19:00 local time in Italy.
Zenit Kazan and Grupa Azoty Kedzierzyn-Kozle will meet for the second time in the Champions League. Their first encounter happened exactly eight years and one day earlier, in the 2013 bronze medal match, when Zenit claimed a four-set victory.
Zenit are the most decorated club in the history of the Champions League since Europe’s top-tier club competition adopted that name at the end of the 20th century. They have won the title a record six times. In addition to the 2013 bronze, they have also won two silvers, including the one from the latest finished edition in 2019. In fact, Zenit played in seven of the last nine Champions League finals, including the most recent five, and reached the last four in all nine editions from 2011 through 2019. Last season they missed out on advancing beyond the pool stage for the first time in history, only to bounce back this season with six wins in Pool C (two of them by forfeit) and two victories over Poland’s PGE Skra Belchatow in the quarterfinals. Since then they have had only one match in the Russian Superliga, which they won in straight sets to finish the regular season in third place. Zenit are on an 11-game winning streak in all competitions.
Alexander Butko“We’ll play with a team which shows very fast volleyball and against which it is very difficult to score. So we tried to focus on defence. All ZAKSA guys are very strong technically and therefore the team shows a very good game. It will two be difficult matches; we understand this very well.”
Setter of Zenit Kazan
This will be Grupa Azoty’s fifth time in the semifinals of the Champions League, but they have never reached the match for the title. Their best result in the history of the competition is the 2003 bronze. In 2020, they were knocked out in the quarterfinal stage. This season, the Polish team went through Pool A undefeated before dethroning reigning champions Cucine Lube Civitanova of Italy in a dramatic golden set. Since then, the squad from Kedzierzyn-Kozle have won all three of their domestic games. They won their last match of the PlusLiga regular season to top the final standings on a 23-3 win-loss record. Over the weekend, Grupa Azoty claimed two victories in the Poland Cup tournament and triumphed with the trophy after shutting out Jastrzebski Wegiel Jastrzebie-Zdroj in Sunday’s final.
Trentino Itas and Sir Sicoma Monini Perugia will also meet for the first time in a Champions League match. However, the two sides have already played three games against each other this season. They exchanged four-set away victories in the Italian league regular season. In a national cup semifinal played at a neutral venue in late January, the squad from Perugia mastered a straight-set victory over Trentino.
Three-time Champions League winners Trentino Itas are aiming at their fifth final. They also have a bronze medal on their tally in the competition. Last year they made the quarterfinals, but did not get to play them because of the coronavirus outbreak. This season Trentino started their campaign from the first round and have won all their 12 matches so far to extend their winning streak in the competition to 13 games. In the quarterfinals, the team from Trento took two three-point victories over Germany’s Berlin Recycling Volleys. They will continue to rely on their Dutch opposite Nimir Abdel-Aziz’s prolific scoring. He has scored the most aces, the most spikes and the most overall points among all players since the start of the season. Last week Trentino managed two wins in their Italian league quarterfinal playoffs to become the first team to reach the semis.
Angelo Lorenzetti“We’re proud to be up to this point of the competition, but we clearly don’t want to stop, and we will do everything we can to pass the round. It’s particularly important for our European run. We will face the team that won the regular season of the Italian championship and already eliminated us from Coppa Italia in the semifinal. Therefore, we know that a very difficult task awaits us, also because we will play the second leg away.”
Head coach of Trentino Itas
At the same time, Sir Sicoma Monini are level in their SuperLega quarterfinal series with Allianz Milano and have the decider coming up on Sunday. The club from Perugia reached the last three podia in the Champions League. After winning a silver and two bronze medals, they are hoping to advance to their second final. Last season they had a 1-0 lead in their quarterfinal series when the competition was prematurely interrupted. This season Sir topped Pool B on a 5-1 win-loss record. In their quarterfinal match-up with fellow Italians Leo Shoes Modena, they rebounded from a straight-set away loss in the first leg to shut out the opponent at home in the second and then crush them in a 15-5 golden set.
Massimo Colaci"The match on Thursday will be important. I like to play in important matches where the pressure is on and all the balls are hot. It will be very difficult in Trento, but it will also be fun. It is a Champions League semifinal and we will prepare for it as best as we can."
Libero of Sir Sicoma Monini Perugia
All semifinal matches to be streamed live on EuroVolleyTV.
Visit the semifinals’ match centres.