No European crown for Benjamin Toniutti, Stephen Boyer and Trevor Clévenot, the three French Olympic champions, with the Polish club of Jastrzebski, Saturday evening in Turin. On the other hand, Kedzierzyn-Kozle won the Champions League for the third consecutive year, after the first final which opposed two Polish teams.
The now triple European champion won with forceps, in five sets (26-28, 25-22, 25-14, 28-30, 15-12), after having had three match points in the fourth set . Kedzierzyn-Kozle also took his revenge on Jastrzebski who had dominated him in the final of PlusLiga, the Polish championship, by three wins to nil. The two teams met for the eighth time this season.
Toniutti could have joined Henno
In the event of victory for his team, Benjamin Toniutti would have become the second French player to have won the Champions League twice (after Hubert Henno, titled in 2001 with Paris then in 2005 under the colors of Tours). Toniutti had been crowned two years ago with … Kedzierzyn-Kozle. Boyer and Clévenot, they will wait before winning a first European club title.
It was only the second time that a Champions League final brought together two teams from the same country (after Belgorod and Odintsovo in 2004 for Russia).