Resovia truly dominant on home soil, TRENTINO edge WARSZAWA as #CLVolleyM Playoffs get underway

Asseco Resovia RZESZÓW prolonged their positive run of wins on home soil as on Wednesday night they cruised to a comprehensive 3-0 victory over Knack ROESELARE – and therefore they will need to take two sets from the re-match in Belgium scheduled for next week if they are to progress to the quarterfinals of the CEV Champions League Volley 2026 – Men. Later in the evening, four-time competition winners TRENTINO Itas had to work hard after a dominant opening set to edge PGE Projekt WARSZAWA at the tiebreak in another highly anticipated Playoff fixture. 

Asseco Resovia RZESZÓW (POL) vs. Knack ROESELARE (BEL) 3-0 (25-16, 25-20, 25-18)

European Volleyball once again took centre stage at the Hala Podpromie, where Asseco Resovia RZESZÓW delivered a convincing 3-0 victory over Knack ROESELARE. In front of their home crowd, the Polish side produced a dominant performance, controlling the rhythm of the match from the very first rallies and maintaining constant pressure on the Belgian team throughout the evening. The atmosphere at Podpromie once again reflected the significance of European nights in Rzeszów, with the home fans playing their part in pushing the team through an all-important playoff encounter.

Asseco Resovia built its victory on an aggressive approach from the service line and a well-balanced offensive distribution orchestrated by setter Marcin Janusz. By involving all attacking options with precision, Janusz consistently disrupted the Belgian blocking system, allowing his teammates to find favourable attacking situations. This tactical balance created multiple opportunities for pipe attacks without a block and outside hits against single blockers, thus enabling the home side to maintain offensive efficiency throughout the match. With this composed and controlled performance, Asseco Resovia secured a straight-sets victory and took an important step forward in the two-legged playoff tie ahead of the return match in Belgium scheduled for March 12. 

At the end of the home fixture, Karol Butryn, who scored 12 points for the local side, shared his thoughts following the victory: “I think that throughout the entire match we were able to show our best Volleyball. We were the team that controlled the game and put our opponents under much pressure. Our serving was very effective today, and I believe that was one of the key factors in the result. Playing in the playoffs always brings extra emotions. In this stage of the competition, if you lose you are out of the Champions League. Our goal is to reach the Final Four. That ambition drives us every day, and we want to do everything we can to get there. Playing at home is certainly a great advantage for us. Our fans are here, this is the arena where we train and where we know every detail of the court. It gives us confidence and energy. You can also see it in our results, away matches have been more difficult for us, while at home we have managed to win most of our games. We want to thank our supporters. We are truly happy to see them come to the arena and support us. Their presence means a lot to the team.”

PGE Projekt WARSZAWA (POL) vs. TRENTINO Itas (ITA) 2-3 (11-25, 25-17, 25-27, 25-19, 8-15) 

Four-time Champions League winners TRENTINO Itas started their away match against PGE Projekt WARSZAWA by cruising to a massive 25-11 win in the opening set. However, as the game progressed, the hosts slowly but surely improved their performance to level the match before losing a closely contested third set to their rivals from Italy. PGE Projekt WARSZAWA, who had a fairly disappointing campaign in Round 4 and only progressed to the Playoffs as the third-ranked team with the best result across all pools, regrouped to claim the fourth set and did catch a promising start to the tiebreak before TRENTINO mobilised their strength and eventually secured a 3-2 win propelled by the 22 points scored by their rising star Théo Faure. Playing without their stellar outside hitter and World Championship MVP Alessandro Michieletto, who had remained in Italy due to injury, TRENTINO could count on another four players finishing the match in double digits – Daniele Lavia, Jordi Ramon Ferragut and Flavio Cesar Gualberto all on 13 points and Simon Torwie (10). Linus Weber scored the most points for WARSZAWA (22) in their losing effort, as TRENTINO held a clear advantage in aces (10 to four) and in blocks as well (nine to seven). If they are to win next week at home by any score, TRENTINO will progress to the quarterfinals to play there another Polish team – Pool B winners Bogdanka LUK LUBLIN.