CEV Champions League 2021 and 2022

    Btw. Lucarelli is clearly past his prime, he's still pretty good player but nowhere near superstar status he once had: second season in Italy and he can't make any significant difference, and it's not like in NT he's as good as he was before 2018. 36yo Juantorena after full season of recovering from injury gave bigger impact today.


    On the other hand, Fornal is a star already, we (I mean Poland) have crazy depth on OH position for next 5-6 years, it's the same like female US NT, Fornal isn't even a safe bet to make WCH team in the summer, and yet he crushed Civitanova today.

    Quote from Realista

    Btw. Lucarelli is clearly past his prime, he's still pretty good player but nowhere near superstar status he once had: second season in Italy and he can't make any significant difference, and it's not like in NT he's as good as he was before 2018. 36yo Juantorena after full season of recovering from injury gave bigger impact today.


    On the other hand, Fornal is a star already, we (I mean Poland) have crazy depth on OH position for next 5-6 years, it's the same like female US NT, Fornal isn't even a safe bet to make WCH team in the summer, and yet he crushed Civitanova today.

    Didn't Lucarelli carry Trentino to the finals of Champions League last year?

    Both Michieletto and Giannelli choked in the finals.

    It's unfair to say that he hasn't done anything when he went to Italy.

    Quote from sambokojin

    Didn't Lucarelli carry Trentino to the finals of Champions League last year?

    Both Michieletto and Giannelli choked in the finals.

    It's unfair to say that he hasn't done anything when he went to Italy.

    Nope, he had bad beginning of the season in Trentino due to family reasons (his father passed away) and health problems, and then he was playing well in the 2nd part of the season, but in general short of spectacular. Lucarelli improved reception a lot, so he's pretty decent allround player right now, but nowhere near impact he had offensively before injury from 2018. Last year, Nimir was clearly a leader of Trentino, basically Trento played Nimirball all season, but when he played below his standards in crucial games of the season against Civitanova in a league and Kędzierzyn-Koźle in the CL finals, so did Trentino as a team.


    So he's still very good player, but impact-wise RL hasn't been a top OH for a while, and we're talking about 2-year span in clubs and NT. Lucarelli plays in top Italian team 2nd season in a row, so it's quite obvious he'll compete for medals in club events regardless of his shape, but prime Lucarelli could play in a two-libero system with Murilo because he was so good offensively, and we have enough evidence he has issues in doing so anymore.


    Obviously, Civitanova as a whole is a washed-up team: Juantorena not playing at all, Zaytsev playing since January (but Blengini for whatever reason played Garcia as a starter in 1st game), De Cecco again with questionable choices in crucial moments, and Lucarelli playing good but not great. Perhaps it's great for them that Juantorena is keen to leave and Lucarelli has offers from Piacenza (that has financial resources to outbid Civitanova), because they definitely need a rebuild, they got crushed this season not by Perugia or Zenit Kazań, but by Vero Volley Monza, Sada Cruzeiro, Allianz Milano and Jastrzębski Węgiel. They have a month to be in shape for crucial league games in Serie A.

    :heart: bounce back Trevor :super:

    Quote from Umu11

    So CEV scheduled the semifinals for the same day and both start only a half an hour apart. Please tell me I am wrong and just confused because of the new CEV website or something :aww:

    You’re right, and both matches can be watched on YouTube. Prepare 3 different devices so you can watch the matches & chat here at the same time:gone::gone::gone:


    Michieletto struggled. It's not a good sign for Trentino.

    So far, Trentino played well. It's not an easy game for Perugia

    Who is the commentator? His voice sounds new. But his comments are right on the point.