Kedzierzyn-Kozle & Trentino, 2021 finalists: Can they do it again in 2022?

Grupa Azoty Kedzierzyn-Kozle of Poland and Itas Trentino of Italy defied all predictions last year and spectacularly made their way through the gruelling pool phase and the intense knockout stage to make the Super Final of the men's Champions League.

Both teams are back again this year - Kedzierzyn-Kozle to try and repeat their triumph of 2021 and Trentino to attempt to go a step further and claim their fourth continental title more than a decade after their last one.

But neither are quite the same.

Kedzierzyn-Kozle have lost key players to other Polish rivals, in setter Benjamin Toniutti of France (who moved to Jastrzebski Wegiel) and libero Pawel Zatorski (who transferred to Asseco Resovia Rzeszow).

But there's new blood come in to fill the gaps: Marcin Janusz (who came over from Trefl Gdansk) is distributing the play this season and USA's Erik Shoji (who moved from Russia's Fakel Novy Urengoy) is sweeping up the back zone.

And Norbert Huber (over in Kedzierzyn-Kozle from PGE Skra Belcahtow) is also a new addition to take care of play in the middle.

The changes, though, have hardly slowed down Kedzierzyn-Kozle, who are currently the only undefeated side and table leaders in Poland's domestic PlusLiga, under the guidance of Romanian head coach Gheorghe Cretu (who replaces the masterminding of last year's success, Serbia's Nikola Grbic).

Trentino have made even more changes to their roster - though the Serbian duo of Marko Podrascanin and Srecko Lisinac alongside homegrown up-and-coming Alessandro Michieletto remains the backbone of their lineup.

They too have to adapt to some new playmaking - Riccardo Sbertoli having moved over from Allianz Milan to replace Simone Giannelli who transferred to Sir Sicoma Monini Perugia.

And Bulgaria's Matey Kaziyski to keep the points rolling in from the outside has also moved to Trento (from Calzedonia Verona) this year, as have Daniele Lavia (from Leo Shoes Modena) and Giulio Pinali (from Consar Ravenna) - all in internal Italian League reshuffling.

To take care of back zone business, Germany's Julian Zenger has joined Trentino from Berlin Recycling Volleys to replace libero Salvatore Rossini after the latter returned to Modena.

As with Kedzierzyn-Kozle, however, the drastic changes do not seem to be holding Trentino back in the highly competitive Italian League. They dropped a couple of matches after an injury of Michieletto (though he has since returned to action, if briefly), but on a 5-2 record Trentino are right up there with the leaders of the table and in contention.

Will the changes on both last year's finalists impact their performance in the 2022 Champions League? Follow the world's top continental league, starting in less than a week, to find out.