Polish Cup up for grabs this weekend in Kraków

Set to battle for the title of the 2024-2025 PlusLiga over the next few weeks, JSW Jastrzębski Węgiel, Aluron CMC Warta Zawiercie, PGE Projekt Warsaw and BOGDANKA LUK Lublin have another trophy in their sights this weekend as the teams are set to compete in the Polish Cup Finals, in Kraków.

Repeating the same matchups that will take place in the Polish League, Jastrzębski Węgiel and Lublin will meet in the first semifinal, scheduled for 14:45 local time (13:45 GMT) on Saturday, with Projekt Warsaw and Aluron meeting in the second, later at 18:00 (17:00 GMT). The winners will advance to the gold medal match, which will be held on Sunday, at 14:45 (13:45 GMT), at the Tauron Arena.

• Watch the Polish Cup Finals live on VBTV.

The winners of the 2009-2010 edition of the Polish Cup, Jastrzębski Węgiel made it to the event's gold medal match in the last five seasons, but lost in each of them. This season, the team hopes to end its series of second-place finishes and lift the trophy again after 15 years.

Led by French Olympic champion setter Benjamin Toniutti and Polish national team players and Paris Olympic silver medalists Tomasz Fornal, Łukasz Kaczmarek and Norbert Huber, Jastrzębski Węgiel made it to the semifinals with a victory over second division opponents WKS Czarni Radom in the quarterfinals.

Their opponents Lublin are competing in the Polish Cup for just the fifth time, and, by making it to the semifinals after eliminating PlusLiga rivals Steam Hemarpol Norwid Częstochowa, they’ve already matched their best campaign, obtained in 2023-2024, when they finished third.

In great form, Polish superstar outside hitter Wilfredo Leon will lead Lublin in Kraków alongside veteran setter and team captain Marcin Komenda and Brazilian national team libero Thales Hoss.

“Jastrzębski Węgiel are a very strong team and we lost both matches against them this season,” Thales said. “But I definitely believe we can beat them, especially in a single match. The pressure will be on their side, and we’ll try our best to get our first win against them in Kraków. Anything can happen.”

The two teams have met only eight times so far, with Jastrzębski Węgiel winning seven of those duels, including the last four.

Defending champions Aluron looking for a repeat

Aluron head to Krakow determined to defend their first Polish Cup title, won last year – the team also has three third-place finishes in the event. In order to return to the semifinals this season, they overcame second division opponents ChKS Chełm in the quarterfinals.

Some of the players who helped Aluron step to the top of the podium last season, middle blocker Mateusz Bieniek, outside hitter Bartosz Kwolek and Australian libero Luke Perry are part of the core of the team in 2024-2025.

“Having won it last season or not, when you get to the Final Four of a tournament, you want to win it,” said Portuguese setter Miguel Tavares. “We know it’s going to be hard to win it again because we’ll be competing with very tough teams. Our semifinals opponents, Projekt Warsaw, play at a very high level, and it will be a tough fight for a spot in the Final.”

Projekt Warsaw, on the other hand, will be looking for their first title in the Polish Cup. They made it to the semifinals on four occasions now and had arguably the toughest matchup in the quarterfinals among the four semifinalists, taking down Polish giants ZAKSA Kędzierzyn-Koźle.

Olympic medalist middle blocker Jakub Kochanowski, outside hitters Artur Szalpuk and Kévin Tillie and veteran libero Damian Wojtasek will be some of the team’s weapons over the weekend in Kraków.

“We’re really looking forward to playing at Tauron Arena,” Szalpuk said. “We’re sure we’ll have a big crowd there, and the atmosphere will be amazing. I hope we can show more than we did last year, and we’ll prepare to do it.”

The team from Warsaw has been most successful in the duels involving the teams over the years, having triumphed on 11 occasions to their opponents’ seven. This season, the teams split wins in the PlusLiga regular season.

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