Menen loot champion and vice champion of last season, Roeselare against winner of 2019

Menen ends up in group D with the Polish Kedzeirzyn-Kozle and the Italian Trentino, both finalists of the past two seasons. At the end of May, Kedzeirzyn-Kozle won the Champions League by beating Trentino 25-22, 25-20 and 32-30. A year earlier, the Poles crowned themselves European champions for the first time with a 25-22, 25-22, 20-25, 28-26 win against Trentino, which did win the Champions League in 2009, 2010 and 2011. The Czech Karlovasrko is the least renowned opponent for Menen.

Roeselare ends up in group C with the Italian Civitanova, Champions League winner in 2002 and 2019, the French Tours, winner in 2005, and a team from the third qualifying round.

The five group winners qualify for the quarter-finals. The runners-up and the best third will play jump-off matches for a place in the last eight. In the women’s race, VDK Gent has to pass Vasas Budapest in the first of three preliminary rounds. The first leg will be played on October 19 in Ghent, the return leg a week later in the Hungarian capital. In the second round, Spain’s Tenerife La Laguna and Bosnian Bimal-Jedinstvo Brcko are the possible opponents.