Italian and Polish teams head CEV Champions League Volley Pool C
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With a new CEV Champions League Volley season starting on Tuesday 12 November, we are taking a closer look at the teams in each of the five pools in the Pool stage.
After starting the series with a look at the teams in Pool A, today we turn our attention to Pool C.
Italy and Poland have dominated the Champions League in recent seasons, with the last five titles heading to those nations, and Pool C features one of each, Allianz Milano from Italy and Poland’s Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie.
These two teams met in Europe last year, when Zawiercie defeated Milano 6-0 in the Playoffs to advance to the quarterfinals of the CEV Cup, where they then fell to compatriots and eventual champions Asseco Resovia.
Zawiercie come into this Champions League season fresh off their highest ever finish in the Polish PlusLiga, where they finished second. On top of that, they claimed the Polish Cup for the first time in their history. They have also started this season on a high, winning the Polish SuperCup.
In terms of the Champions League, Zawiercie’s last appearance came in 2022/23 when they fell in the play-offs.
Allianz Milano are competing in the Champions League for the first time, having also celebrated their best ever domestic performance last season. Despite finishing the season in 6th, they defeated No. 3 seed Piacenza in the first play-off round, but fell to eventual champions Sir Sicoma Monini Perugia in the semi-finals.
However, they showed up in the third-place play-off and defeated Trentino Itas, last season’s Champions League winners, to book their spot in Europe’s premier competition for this season.
Despite this being Milano’s first taste of the Champions League, they have achieved continental success, winning the CEV challenge Cup in 2021, defeating Turkish side Ziraat Bankasi SK in the final.
Another team with European pedigree joining Milano and Zawiercie in Pool C this season is Knack Roeselare. Roeselare have dominated the Belgian league in recent seasons, lifting each of the last four titles, and 10 of the last 15, with only fellow Champions League competitors Greenyard Maaseik managing to stop them in that time.
The Belgians have had success in Europe, though the majority came at the turn of the century. They lifted the CEV Cup in 2002, defeating SC Espinho in the final, and finished the CEV Challenge Cup as runners-up in 1998 and 1999, losing out to Italian sides on both occasions.
They very nearly added another continental title to the trophy cabinet in 2023, but narrowly lost to Modena Volley in a Golden Set in the 2023 CEV Cup Final. A stalwart of the Champions League, you have to go all the way back to 2012 to find the last time Roeselare did not compete in the pool stage.
The final team completing Pool C is Austrian outfit Hypo Tirol Innsbruck, fresh off the back of a second straight Austrian league title. Their league victory in 2023 ended a run of five seasons without a title.
Innbruck return to the Champions League for the first time in nearly a decade, their last appearance coming in 2016 when they finished 3rd in their Pool. You have to go all the way back to 2010 to find the last time the Austrians made it out of the pool phase, when they reached the Playoff 6, narrowly missing out on a spot in the Final Four.
Pool C’s action begins on Wednesday 13 November, and all four teams will be keen to make their mark on a competition in which they have not been able to do so in recent seasons.