Final Four CEV Champions League 2025: European top teams are set for showdown in Łódź!

The Final Four of CEV Champions League will take place at Atlas Arena in Łódź from tomorrow, May 16 to Sunday 18, 2025, featuring four of Europe’s strongest volleyball clubs.
This prestigious event marks the final stage of 2024/25 season, where teams will compete for one of the most coveted trophies in European volleyball.

📸| Look at Photogallery of Press Conference in Łódź.

Among the finalists are Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie, JSW Jastrzębski Węgiel, both from Poland, Sir Sicoma Monini Perugia from Italy, and Halkbank Ankara from Turkey.
Each team earned its place after successful quarterfinal performances and will now aim to cap off the season with continental success.

Interestingly, Halkbank Ankara was the only team that managed to beat Italian former champions Sir Sicoma Monini Perugia in this edition of the Champions League so far, and they did so in the last leg of the pool stage, in five sets in Perugia.
However, they had lost to Sir in straight sets at home before that. Turkish powerhouse, who come from a disastrous domestic season closing regular season at fifth place and even at eight place at the end of their campaing in Turkish Efeler Ligi, started their Champions League chapter in Pool D with another defeat on home ground, 3-2 at the hands of France’s Saint-Nazaire Atlantique, but they also took their revenge against this rival, beating them in five sets in their second match in France. Against the other Pool D opponent, Czechia’s Jihostroj Ceske Budejovice, the Turkish team put together a 3-1 away win and a 3-0 sweep at home and finished pool runners-up on a 4-2 win-loss record and 11 points.
In the eighthfinals, they collected a four-set home wins against Italy’s Allianz Milano, which led to a thrilling golden set right after the away match. The visitors from Ankara won it by 15-13 and progressed to the quarterfinals.
In a similar scenario, they knocked out Poland’s PGE Projekt Warsaw in quarterfinals: in the first leg, they delivered a 3-1 home win, only to allow the opponent a sweep of the second-leg match in Poland to force another golden set, ended 15-12 in their favor.

Tomorrow, on Friday, they’ll face far Sir Sicoma Monini Perugia.
This season, italian powerhouse lost only one of the eight Champions League matches played and that was in the last clash of their Pool D campaign, when they had already secured the first place. They were beaten at home in five sets by the team they are about to meet again tomorrow, Halkbank!
With France’s Saint-Nazaire Atlantique and Czech Republic’s Jihostroj Ceske Budejovice also in the group, they swept all five of their previous matches in the pool in straight sets.
They advanced straight to the quarterfinals, where they defeated compatriots Mint Vero Volley Monza twice, 3-1 on the road and 3-1 at home, to progress to the Final Four in Lodz.

Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie won all eight of their Champions League matches on the way to the Final Four, set to be less than two hundred kilometers from their home!
In Pool C, they recorded home and away straight-set wins over Austria’s Hypo Tirol Innsbruck and over Belgium’s Knack Roeselare. The only two sets and the only point they dropped came in their win on the field of Italy’s Allianz Milano. At home, however, they shut out the Italian Champions League rookies to top the final pool standings undefeated.
Jumping directly to the quarterfinals, they swept their away game at SVG Lueneburg and followed up with a four-set victory over the German team at home.
In their next match on Saturday, Aluron will meet Polish compatriots JSW Jastrzebski Wegiel Jastrzebie-Zdroj in what will be the fifth encounter between these two this season!
So far, they have traded victories in two finals, with Aluron winning the Poland Super Cup and Jastrzebski Wegiel winning the Polish Cup but not only, as they have also exchanged straight-set road victories in the Polish PlusLiga!

Jastrzebie-Zdroj is about 250 kilometers from Lodz, and Jastrzebski Wegiel reached Final Four after winning seven of their eight games played. They topped the final Pool E standings with a 6-0 win-loss record and 17 points, with underdogs Levski Sofia from Bulgaria who were the only team that managed to take away a point from them.
Against France’s Chaumont 52, they registered a 3-0 away and a 3-1 at home, and against Germany’s SVG Lueneburg, they achieved a 3-1 away and a 3-0 at home.
Also Jastrzebski progressed straight to the quarterfinals, where they suffered the only defeat of their campaign so far, a 3-2 in Greece, on the field of Olympiacos Piraeus in the first leg.
In the second leg, however, they reacted with a clean sweep at home.

Match Schedule – Atlas Arena, Łódź:
• Friday, May 16, 20:00 (Local Time) – Semifinal 1: Sir Sicoma Monini Perugia vs. Halkbank
• Saturday May 17, 14:45 (Local Time) – Semifinal 2: Jastrzębski Węgiel – Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie

• Sunday, May 18, 16.00 (Local Time) – Bronze Medal Match
• Sunday, May 18, 20.05 (Local Time) – Gold Medal Match

The event promises exciting matchups and a showcase of high-level volleyball in one of Poland’s top indoor arenas.

“In the name of the European Volleyball Confederation I would like to welcome you here today. It is nice to see everybody being here and following us in this competition. As we are here today reaching the pinnacle of the season where we will conclude our European club competitions season and where we will crown the new winner of the Champions League, I sincerely want to thank you all. I want to thank all the athletes, clubs and the coaches that have sacrificed themselves during this season,” said CEV President Roko Sikirić.

“I sincerely want to thank the Polish Volleyball Federation, the city of Łódź, that have provided us the opportunity to be in such a beautiful and supportive city, a city of volleyball, but as well as our sponsors that have supported us during this journey. We will be playing in one of the historical venues for volleyball. A few days after we announced the host city, the hall has been sold out, so we expect a great show. We know that we are in a great place and the best place to conclude this season,” he added.

Sebastian Świderski, President of the Polish Volleyball Federation said: “It is a great privilege to host the Final Four here, in Łódź and I would like to also thank the city municipality. I congratulate all teams for being here, I wish them good luck and, above all, good health in this tournament. May the best team win. Thank you.”

Adam Pustelnik, the Deputy Mayor of Łódź, also underlined the importance of hosting such a prestigious competition in the city, with thousands of fans expected to see the matches live.

“It is a great privilege for us as Łódź that another big event related to volleyball is in our city. We are happy that two teams are from Poland. Of course, naturally, this will attract many residents of our city and many Polish fans who will enjoy these fantastic emotions during the next three days. We thank the CEV for putting their trust in us, for the first cooperation of this kind,” he stated.

Perugia’s captain, setter Simone Giannelli, told the audience how important is this Final Four for him and for the team: “We are very happy to be here, but we know that we face a very good team. We will be trying to win the title for the first time in Perugia’s history. Personally, I played two finals and unfortunately I took the silver medal each time.”

“It’s an honour to be here representing Halkbank and myself here. I didn’t grow up like many players watching a lot of Champions League. I was far away in Hawaii, a small island in the middle of the ocean. But very quickly I understood the importance of this event. And the opportunity that we have here this year. We’re excited about it,” said Micah Ma’a, Halkbank Ankara’s captain.

Benjamin Toniutti, Jastrzębski’s captain: “It is an honour for us to be again between the top four teams in Europe. We know our opponents very well, we played domestically a lot. It will be a big fight. But we are prepared for the battle on Saturday“.

Mateusz Bienek, Zawiercie’s captain, also said: “For sure, for our club it is an amazing moment and a historic moment because we are playing for the first time in our history in the Final Four. So we are happy and proud to be here.”