Today, in the second leg of the quarter-finals of the Volleyball Champions League, Italian Trentino and German Berlin will face each other.
The Italian volleyball club Trentino is heading into the return quarter-final match of the Champions League as favourites, confirming their dominance on both the international scene and in the national Superlega. Despite an unexpected defeat to the main rival for the championship, Perugia, with a score of 1:3, thereby ending their winning streak of 5 consecutive games, the team continues to demonstrate a high level of play.
In the Champions League, Trentino showed their best side, leaving the group with 5 wins from 6 matches. The only defeat was from Polish Jeshuv in the final round, where Trentino appeared with their second team. In the first quarter-final match against German Berlin, Trentino showed their superiority by confidently winning all 3 sets and not allowing the opponent to score more than 18 points in each of the three games. This indicates that the question of advancing to the semi-final for the Italian team seems already resolved, considering their current form and the results of previous games.
Trentino confirms their status as one of the main contenders for victory in the Champions League, as well as for the championship in the Italian Superlega, despite temporary difficulties in the national championship.
The German volleyball club Berlin can consider their advance to the Champions League quarter-final a significant success. In the 1/8 final stage, they confidently defeated the French Tours in two games with a total set score of 6:1. In the group stage, Berlin's opponents included Italian Piacenza and Turkish Halkbank, with a result of 3-3, the team advanced in third place from the group, losing in the final round to an unmotivated Piacenza with a score of 0:3.
In the local Bundesliga championship, Berlin holds the first place with an impressive record of 19 wins and 2 losses, battling for the championship with Giessen and Friedrichshafen. In the last round, the team won a tense match against Lüneburg at the tiebreaker with a score of 3:2, leading 2:0 after two sets. Let's look at the last five matches of Berlin: on February 24 against Lüneburg in the Bundesliga, a win with a score of 3:2. On February 21 against Trentino in the Champions League, a loss with a score of 0:3. On February 17 against Karlsruhe in the Bundesliga, victory with a score of 3:0. On February 14 against Freiburg in the Bundesliga, victory with a score of 3:0. On February 10 against Dachau in the Bundesliga, a loss with a score of 3:2.
These results demonstrate both Berlin's strength on a national level and their inability to compete with the strongest European teams in the Champions League.
In the history of personal meetings between Berlin and Trentino within the framework of the Champions League, substantial advantage of Italians could be observed. Analysis of 7 matches shows that Trentino has a considerable advantage over Berlin, with 5 wins against Berlin's 2.
Berlin last won the Champions League quarter-final on March 16, 2022, with a score of 3:2, after losing the first match and quite confidently in 2013 with a result of 3:0. However, Trentino dominated in the recent matches, including the last meeting on February 21, 2024, with a score of 3:0, as well as both matches in 2021 and one in 2022 with the same result of 3:0 in favour of the Italian team.
The obvious home favourite is expected to win, but Trentino, after a won game and having resolved the issue of reaching the semi-final, is unlikely to field the core of their team. Hence, the Germans could well grab the 1st set, with a good coefficient on a plus handicap in sets.
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