Fabulous ending for Round 4 sees 11 teams progress in the CLVolleyM

After plenty of twists and turns, even in the last matchday of Round 4 of the CEV Champions League Men 2024, 11 teams have progressed to the knock-out phases of the European premium competition, with five of them, the pool winners, going directly to the quarter-finals, while six are heading to the play-offs.

It went right to the wire, as the reigning champions, Grupa Azoty Kędzierzyn-Koźle, provided a stunning comeback against Knack Roeselare, erasing a two-set deficit, to take a 3:2 win and eventually progress to the play-offs, after an underwhelming campaign, which saw them on the brink of elimination, after winning the previous three editions.

Pool A, where Grupa Azoty Kędzierzyn-Koźle played against Ziraat Bank Ankara, Olympiacos Piraeus and Knack Roeselare, also saw the only team with a perfect record, with Ankara dominating their opponents on their way to the first place. The Turkish powerhouse also secured the largest number of points – 16 – in this season’s pool phase.

Making it by the skin of their teeth, Grupa Azoty Kędzierzyn-Koźle were the team with the lowest number of points from the second-placed sides, as they will now face the second-best team between the sides which finished second, setting up a heavyweight clash against Halkbank Ankara.

Halkbank, which made the semi-finals last season, won four matches and dropped two of them, ending up on the second place, behind Italian side Gas Sales Daiko Piacenza in Pool C. On their way to the win, Piacenza dropped only five sets, three of which came in the opener against Halkbank, which they dropped, 1:3.

Two other Italian sides – Trentino Itas and Cucine Lube Civitanova – also won their pools and made it three out of three for the Serie A sides, progressing directly to the quarter-finals, where last season’s runners-up, Jastrzębski Węgiel, have also qualified by winning Pool D, with a 5-1 record, the same boasted by Trentino Itas and Cucine Lube Civitanova. 

A quarter-finals pairing is already set, between the fourth and the fifth-ranked teams which won the group. With Ziraat Bank Ankara, Trentino Itas and Lube Civitanova boasting a 16-point tally, the last two places went to Piacenza and Jastrzębski Węgiel, as the two powerhouses are ready to deliver drama in the battle for a semi-finals ticket.

The best-placed team between the sides which finished on the second place was French side Tours VB, which boasted 12 points and four wins out of the six matches they played, but they will not face a stern challenge, despite playing against the best-placed team which finished on the third place in the five pools.

Only two teams ended up on three wins, Berlin Recycling Volleys and Asseco Resovia Rzeszów, but Berlin had 10 points, as opposed to the Polish side’s eight points, making it to the play-offs, despite their last matchday loss against Gas Sales Daiko Piacenza, 0:3.

With a 3:0 win over Arcada Galați in the last matchday, Lvi Praha also made it to the play-offs and will face debutants Guaguas Las Palmas in the next phase of the competition, with a well-balanced tie on the cards, after the two sides have each won three matches and sealed 10 points in their pools.

The play-offs of the CEV Champions League 2024 Men are due to be played in a doubleheader, with the first leg scheduled for the last week of January and the second leg in the first week of February.