#CEVCupM Final first leg coming up in Lüneburg
News
The city of Lüneburg in Lower Saxony, around 60 kilometres from Hamburg, is due to play host on Wednesday to the first fixture scheduled for the final stage of the men’s CEV Cup featuring the home side SVG LÜNEBURG and Italy’s Gas Sales Bluenergy PIACENZA of Italy.
SVG LÜNEBURG are contesting the final of the #CEVCupM for the second time in their history. They previously did so in 2024 when they lost to Asseco Resovia RZESZÓW of Poland. Their roster is truly multi-national, with three Germans alongside three Americans, three Canadians, two Swedes, one Finn, one Dane, and one Japanese player. The head coach is Stefan Hübner who leads a blend of experienced players and talented youngsters capable of playing very good Volleyball. They started their European season in the CEV Champions League, where they contested the Pool D matches and finished third, thereby dropping down to the CEV Volleyball Cup, where they beat the Belgian side Greenyard MAASEIK in the semi-finals, winning the first leg played in Belgium 3-1 (15-25, 25-20, 25-22, 26-24) and the return match played in Germany 3-2 (27-25, 28-26, 23-25, 23-25, 16-14).
Gas Sales Bluenergy PIACENZA are taking part in the competition for the second time in their history after finishing fourth in last year’s national league. Earlier this season, they beat another German side – BERLIN Recycling Volleys – in the quarter-finals and subsequently Slovenia’s ACH Volley LJUBLJANA in the semis. Their opponents finished the Bundesliga regular season in first place with a tally of 74 points from 28 matches played. Moreover, in the playoffs, the hosts progressed through the quarterfinals with a 3-0 home (25-20, 25-18, 25-21) and 3-1 away win (13-25, 25-22, 18-25, 21-25) over WWK Volleys HERRSCHING. They recently beat SWD powervolleys DÜREN 3-0 (25-18, 33-31, 25-15) in Game 1 of the semi-finals in front of their home crowd and will play Game 2 this coming Sunday, April 19. They have already secured the Zoi DVV National Cup trophy this season, beating VfB FRIEDRICHSHAFEN in a dramatic tie-break. PIACENZA, on the other hand, recently lost to #CLVolleyM titleholders Sir Sicoma Monini PERUGIA in the semis of the elite Italian national league.
Samuele Papi“We are up against a very tight-knit team that holds the court well and, above all, plays excellent Volleyball. They have talented young players in their squad and have dropped very few sets at home this season. There has been little time to prepare for this match and, above all, to recover both mentally and physically; our opponents are also coming off a play-off fixture. We still have two matches left before our season ends, and we have never made a secret of our CEV Cup ambitions.”
Assistant coach of Gas Sales Bluenergy Piacenza