End in Sight on Road to Verona

Two teams will be punching tickets to the men's Super Final of the CEV Champions League Volley 2021 on Wednesday, as the return legs of the men's semifinals keep fans across Europe and the world on edge.

With six European Champions League titles since 2008 (and five in the last decade) Zenit Kazan are the most decorated club of this century - but are in great danger of crashing out after losing at home in the first leg to Grupa Azoty Kedzierzyn-Kozle.

It is definitely far from a foregone conclusion and Zenit are certainly capable of coming back to save the day - something all at Kedzierzyn-Kozle are well aware of, not least head coach Nikola Grbic.

Question is, can Zenit do in Poland what they failed to achieve in Kazan last week when they blew as many as five match points in the third and fifth sets as Kedzierzyn-Kozle came back from two set down to score an incredible away win?

All eyes (and a lot of the Zenit blocks) will be on Kamil Semeniuk who scored a match high of 27 points in the first leg and was instrumental in the Kedzierzyn-Kozle comeback.

Defending champions Cucine Lube Civitanova may already be out of contention after getting knocked out in the quarterfinals by Kedzierzyn-Kozle, but Italian presence in the 2021 final is assured, through the all-Italian semifinal between Trentino Itas and Sir Sicoma Monini Perugia.

The first leg was not as dramatic as that in Kazan, but Trentino scored a solid straight-set win that now puts the pressure on Perugia to overturn that. Worst case scenario for three-time European champions Trentino would be to fight for the ticket to the semifinals in a 'Golden Set'.

Seems, though, that Trentino are not resting on their laurels as they acknowledge that the road to the final remains long and hard.

Keep an eye out for the performance of top scorer so far in the 2021 Champions League Nimir Abdel Aziz, who picked his latest (of many this season) MVP of the match awards in the first leg. The efficiency of Trentino's opposite will be key to the outcome.

The winners of the semifinals will clash on 1 May at the GSM Forum Arena in Verona for the grand trophy.