The Italian side of TRENTINO Itas are benefitting fully from playing at home, despite having to cope with missing their two setters. Dutchman Nimir Abdel-Aziz stepped up once more and led his team to a 3-1 (19-25, 25-18, 25-18, 25-20) victory. Former countryman Dick Kooy, who now has the Italian nationality, was chosen as the MVP. TRENTINO will face FRIEDRICHSHAFEN on Thursday for the reign of Pool E.

ČEZ KARLOVARSKO (CZE) vs TRENTINO Itas (ITA) 1-3 (25-19, 18-25, 18-25, 20-25)

The better start to the match was from the Czech team, they pressed TRENTINO immediately and built an eight point lead. KARLOVARSKO spikers Patrik Indra and Lukasz Wiese couldn't be stopped. TRENTINO made too many mistakes (8 over 3), resulting in a Czech set win.

From that moment on TRENTINO was in charge, they were never again behind. Setter pro tem Abdel-Aziz had no trouble finding his attackers, Dick Kooy scored 16 of his spikes, middle blocker Srecko Lisinac added 7 spikes to his 5 blocks and 4 aces to reach 16 points. The three remaining sets fell prey to TRENTINO without much of a battle: 25-18, 25-18, 25-20.

• Lukas Vasina scored 15 for KARLOVARSKO, Dick Kooy was topscorer with 18
• The battle between two Dutch setters was decided in favour of Nimir Abdel-Aziz. He scored 7 points for TRENTINO, while fellow national team player Wessel Keemink scored once
• KARLOVARSKO are now at the bottom of Pool E, TRENTINO are in second place with one point less than FRIEDRICHSHAFEN, Thursday’s opponent.

Daniel Pfeffer, Libero of ČEZ KARLOVARSKO: “For sure we play better than yesterday. More relax a with more confidence. We improve in all the parts of the game. We defend a lot of balls a was good on block too. But agains the team like this we have to stay constance whole game. So here we have to improve to start winning the games in this competition.”

Zdeněk Sklenář, Assistent-Coach of ČEZ KARLOVARSKO: “The game started really well for us. We served well, we played good in reception and defence and also our transition was good. During the game Trento started to play better and make good change with young Michieletto. That was fights for each point and finally Trento was the winner.”

Marko Podrascanin, middle blocker for TRENTINO Itas: “It is a very important victory for us today, after the tough game of yesterday and five sets against Novosibirsk. Before the game, we knew that it would be tough because we were a little tired, but tomorrow for us there is the final game against FRIEDRICHSHAFEN. I hope we will start a better game than today and yesterday, and we will win because we know the first place in our group is really important this year in Champions League.”

Jiri Novak, Head Coach of CEZ KARLOVARSKO: “A very good start of the game, we played with ferocity, and then it was very difficult for us to be stable and play well under the pressure. Today, I am satisfied because my team played how we know, but for the moment it was not enough to beat the team of TRENTINO."