#CLVolleyM Pool Previews – Two Polish giants headline Group D

Two standout teams from Poland – the 2025 silver medal winners Aluron CMC Warta ZAWIERCIE and wildcard recipients Asseco Resovia RZESZÓW – are the heavyweights featuring in the #CLVolleyM Pool D together with rookies Sporting CP LISBOA and Germany’s SVG LÜNEBURG, who last year sensationally reached the quarterfinals of the competition. With such an impressive line-up, fans are in for a treat with the first of two highly anticipated Polish derbies scheduled for Leg 1! 

Aluron CMC Warta ZAWIERCIE (POL)     

Last year’s silver medal winners are making their third appearance in the competition. Apart from making it to the gold medal match earlier this year, which they lost 2-3 to Sir Sicoma Monini PERUGIA of Italy, back in the 2022/2023 season they lost in the Playoff round to eventual winners Grupa Azoty KEDZIERZYN KOZLE. Curiously, last year ZAWIERCIE finished runners-up in each of the three competitions that they contested – the #CLVolleyM, the Polish national league and the national cup as well. 

Last season, the team from southern Poland had a terrific run in the #CLVolleyM – securing nine wins in the process and losing only the grand finale to PERUGIA. American outside hitter Aaron Russell was their best scorer in 2024/2025 on 125 points, including as many as 25 in the gold medal match. 

Their head coach Michal Winiarski is a former winner of the #CLVolleyM – he achieved this feat in 2009 with Italy’s TRENTINO Volley. On the other hand, libero Jakub Popiwczak has contested the #CLVolleyM gold medal match two times – but he always ended up on the losing side in 2023 and 2024 while playing for JASTRZEBSKI Wegiel. Popiwczak shares this record with 41-year-old Jurii Gladyr – who made it to the gold medal match in 2025 as well as he was already playing for ZAWIERCIE, a side that Popiwczak joined only ahead of this season.   

Earlier this year, Popiwczak won bronze with Team Poland at the FIVB Men’s Volleyball World Championship in the Philippines. Dawid Ogorek played in last year’s CEV Cup final with Asseco Resovia RZESZÓW while Bartlomiej Boladz was a member of the Polish national team that this past summer won the FIVB Volleyball Nations League title in Ningbo, China. 

Asseco Resovia RZESZÓW (POL) 

Just like Halkbank ANKARA and MONTPELLIER HSC VB, Asseco Resovia RZESZÓW received a wild card to enter this season’s Champions League. Asseco Resovia had finished sixth in the regular phase of the 2024/2025 Polish League, before losing to Pool D rivals Aluron CMC Warta ZAWIERCIE in the first Playoff round.

This is their eighth Champions League campaign in history; they previously appeared in 2009/2010, from 2012/2013 to 2016/2017, and 2023/2024. The club had their best result when they finished runners up in 2014/2015 following a 0-3 loss against Zenit KAZAN in the gold medal match. Asseco Resovia only failed to progress from the group phase in 2023/2024, when they finished third in their group with a record of three wins and just as many losses. 

They reached the final of the CEV Cup in the past two seasons, winning the trophy in 2023/2024 (versus SVG LÜNEBURG, one of their rivals in Pool D) and finishing runners-up  last year when they lost the final  to Türkiye’s Ziraat Bank ANKARA. The club also reached the final of the CEV Cup in 2012 (which they lost to Dinamo MOSCOW).

They have 12 players in their current squad who are 30 years or older. Marcin Janusz and Erik Shoji won the Champions League with Grupa Azoty KĘDZIERZYN KOŹLE in 2022 and 2023. Pawel Zatorski was a member of that same team when they triumphed in 2021. Karol Butryn played for Aluron CMC Warta ZAWIERCIE in last season’s Champions League gold medal match against Sir Sicoma Monini PERUGIA. Artur Szalpuk won the 2025 Volleyball Nations League and claimed bronze with Team Poland at the FIVB World Championship this year. These players account for a well-rounded roster following the departure of Resovia’s top scorer for the past two seasons, Stephen Boyer, who has moved to Japan. 

This is Massimo Botti’s first season as coach of Asseco Resovia RZESZÓW. Last year, he won both the Polish League title and the CEV Volleyball Challenge Cup while he was in charge of Bogdanka LUK LUBLIN.

Sporting CP LISBOA (POR) 

The reigning Portuguese national champions make their debut in the Champions League. They are the third club from Portugal to feature in the competition, after VITORIA SC in 2008/2009 and Sport LISBOA e Benfica (five times between 2019/2020 and 2024/2025).

The last  season in which a Portuguese team featured in the group phase was 2023/2024 (Sport LISBOA e Benfica). Sporting CP LISBOA will be hoping to end a run of 12 successive group phase defeats by a Portuguese club (Sport LISBOA e Benfica lost all of their group phase matches in 2022/2023 and 2023/2024). The only Portuguese club to survive the group phase was VITORIA SC in 2008/2009. They were eliminated by Greece’s Iraklis THESSALONIKI in the 8th Finals. 

Apart from winning the national league, last season Sporting CP also reached the semis in the Challenge Cup in which they lost to Poland’s Bogdanka LUK LUBLIN (0-3, 0-3). Edson Alberto Valencia Gonzalez was the top scorer of that competition on 146 points, whereas Jonas Aguenier led the way in kill blocks (27).

Sporting CP LISBOA has already won the Portuguese Super Cup in the current season, 3-1 against their city rivals Sport LISBOA e Benfica. Legendary Russian setter Sergey Grankin joined Sporting CP LISBOA ahead of this season. He finished runner up with Dinamo MOSCOW in the 2009/2010 Champions League. The 40-year-old won Olympic gold in 2012 with Team Russia and also lifted the CEV Cup trophy as many as three times. As for head coach João Coelho, this is the first time he is at the helm of a team competing in the elite CEV Champions League.

SVG LÜNEBURG (GER) 

SVG LÜNEBURG are in the Champions League for the third time, after 2023/2024 (group phase) and 2024/2025 when they reached the quarterfinals where they were eliminated by Aluron CMC Warta ZAWIERCIE (0-3, 1-3). Their resume includes reaching the final of the 2024 CEV Cup in which they lost against Asseco Resovia RZESZÓW (0-3, 0-3), another one of their rivals in the group. 

Last season, SVG LÜNEBURG sensationally eliminated BERLIN Recycling Volleys in the Playoff round after winning the Golden Set 15-13. Nine of the 11 sets in those two encounters were decided by the smallest margin. Moreover, the 52 points (27-25) in the fifth set of SVG LÜNEBURG’s 3-2 home win against BERLIN Recycling Volleys account for the most points scored in a fifth set in the Champions League. In the German Bundesliga, SVG LÜNEBURG were once involved in a 98-point set: a 48-50 loss in the third set of a 3-1 away defeat against  Hypo Tirol Alpenvolleys HACHING on 21 December 2019.

SVG LÜNEBURG finished second in last season’s German Bundesliga, behind multiple champions BERLIN Recycling Volleys.

Their 2025/2026 roster includes only three German players – middle blocker Joscha Kunstmann, libero Joris Backhaus and setter Neo Laumann. Japan’s Sho Takahashi (born 2 January 1995) is the only player in their squad who is 30 years or older.

As a player, their head coach Stefan Hübner won the CEV Challenge Cup with RPA-LuigiBacchi.it PERUGIA in 2010.