A big question for the play-offs: Halkbank Ankara's experience or Allianz Milano's exuberance?

While Allianz Milano are in the CEV Champions League Men for the first time and could secure a maiden quarter-finals berth, Halkbank Ankara will be looking to secure their third consecutive appearance between the last eight teams in the European premium competition, as the two sides gear up for a fiery doubleheader in the play-offs.

Halkbank Ankara showed promise and a gritty performance in the last match of the 4th round, when they took down Italian powerhouse Sir Sicoma Monini Perugia, 3:2, on the Italian side’s court. In fact, Ankara delivered the first loss for Perugia, as well as the first lost sets for the Italian side, which finished fourth in the pool winners’ standings.

That showed that the Turkish side are no pushovers and have a fantastic set-up in their squad, with experienced players like Marek Sotola, who is the fourth best scorer in the competition, with 119 points, as well as Dick Kooy, Mirza Lagumdzija or Micah Ma’a, who can be unstoppable at times.

However, the head-to-head record of the previous encounters with Italian opposition in the European premium competition does not sound optimistic for Halkbank Ankara. The Turkish powerhouse conceded 12 losses in 18 matches, winning only six of them. Moreover, Halkbank Ankara also lost against Allianz Milano in the 2020/21 season of the CEV Challenge Cup Men, when the Italian side delivered two wins in the semi-finals, 3:1 and 3:0.

Nevertheless, Halkbank look like the more experienced team in this matchup, having played six times in the play-offs in the last decade. They also faced Italian opposition three time in the play-offs, winning against DHL Modena in the 2015/16 season when the format had two play-offs stages, before being eliminated by Cucine Lube Civitanova.

In the 2017/18 season, Halkbank also crashed out in the play-offs after a loss against Perugia, a team which they splitted the wins against this season, in the 4th round.

“We know our opponents and the how important every match at this stage is and we will do everything on the court to win,”said Dick Kooy, Halkbank’s outside hitter.

For Milano, everything is new in the CEV Champions League Men, as this is their maiden season in the European premium competition. So far, the Italian side has won four matches and dropped two, but took two sets in their 3:2 home loss against pool winners Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie.

Allianz Milano are the first Italian team to feature in the play-offs since the 2017/18 season, but also have an experienced team at their disposal, with experienced star Matey Kaziyski coming back to Ankara, where he featured in Halkbank’s team which were runners-up in that season.

Currently, Milano’s top scorer is Ferre Reggers, with 108 points, and the Italian side will hope to exert some pressure on Halkbank, which has lost two matches on their home court this season, 2:3 against Saint-Nazaire VB Atlantique and 0:3 against Sir Sicoma Monini Perugia.