Trento, 31 March 2018
Easter at BLM Group Arena of Trento for match 2 of Championship Play Offs 2018 semi-finals
Simone Giannelli blocked Ivan Zaytsev during game 1 in Perugia (ph. Trabalza)
Match 2 of Championship Play Offs Unipolsai 2018 semi-finals will be played at Easter (Sunday April 1st) at BLM Group Arena of Trento. Diatec Trentino will receive Sir Safety Conad Perugia as host, aiming for a victory that would eventually turn in a draw in the series of the best-of-five matches.vThe start of the match is scheduled for 6 p.m.: live broadcast on Radio Dolomiti and live streaming on Lega Volley Channel by clicking at www.elevensports.it/superlega.
HERE DIATEC TRENTINO After the home 1-3 defeat of Thursday night in Umbria, the yellow-blues are now ready to aim for a victory to not let their opponents to go on 0-2, and with the third match to be played again at PalaEvangelisti in seven days.vTo try to get the draw point, Lanza and his teammates want to start from the encouraging performance shown in Perugia during match 1 and they also count on the often decisive boost of their public, which is ready to answer the call.
“We will the part of the contestants in this series and because of this we will have to reduce the technical and tactical gap with Perugia, even before looking at the field factor to get the draw – said Angelo Lorenzetti for a small presentation of the match - . The second match will then represent a big chance to try to play our part, we will have to live the match as best as we can, played with the right determination. We showed the right attitude to face this kind of matches in Perugia, but a single match doesn’t say everything about the real power of a team”.
The coach of Trento will have all the thirteen players of the roster at his disposal, which will gather today at lunch-time and in the late morning of Sunday. Match 2 of semi-final will be the 43rd seasonal match of Trentino Volley, the 758th official match of its history, the 108th match in the Championship Play Offs, where since 2011 it lost only four times at home in 31 played matches. In the previous ten presences of Championship semi-finals, the Club of via Trener won five times match 2 of the series but never managed to do this when it played at PalaTrento (defeat versus Treviso in 2006 and versus Modena in 2016).
THE OPPONENTS The victory in match 1 confirmed the odds of the series in favour of Sir Safety Conad Perugia but also the field factor. The team from Umbria comes to Trento at Easter to try to stop the negative tradition at BLM Group Arena, which the red-black Club didn’t manage to conquer in five previous matches of Play Off Scudetto in 2015 and 2017 semi-finals.
To try to get the 2-0-point, coach Lorenzo Bernardi counts a lot on the reliability of his starting six, which during this season lost only three away matches (in Civitanova, in Modane and recently in Ravenna) on an overall of twenty-two played matches. Colaci and his teammates will be followed in Trento by two-hundred supporters.
THE BACKGROUND The sixth seasonal match between Diatec Trentino and Sir Safety Conad Perugia will be played at BLM Group Arena and it’s the twenty-sixth in the history of the two clubs. The balance of this regular season only speaks in favour of the team from Umbria, which always won in Supercoppa, Regular Season, Coppa Italia and match 1 of semi-finals, but the overall one is instead in favour of Trentino Volley for 14-11. In the hall of via Fersina, the hosts obtained only two victories on twelve previous matches, breaking on February 4th a negative series of eight defeats in a row. In the Championship Play Offs the match took place nine times already, with five victories for Trento and four for Perugia.
THE SERIES Sir Safety Conad Perugia is ahead for 1-0 in the semi-finals series which is played with the best-of-five formula, thanks to the 3-1 obtained at PalaEvangelisti during match 1 on March 29th (25-23, 18-25, 25-23, 25-22). On Sunday match 2, that could be the only one to be played at BLM Group Arena in case of two other victories of the team from Umbria during the incoming match and the next (match 3) on Saturday April 7th in Perugia (6 p.m.). In case of a victory in the next two matches for Trentino Volley, a fourth match will be necessary (match 4) and would eventually be played in Trentino again on Sunday April 15th at 6 p.m. Who will pass the turn will find in the final match (this series will be with the best-of-five formula as well and will start on April 22nd) the winning team of the semi-final Civitanova-Modena, with the Marchigiani ahead for 1-0 (match 2 will be tomorrow at PalaPanini).
REFEREES The match will be directed by Armando Simbari (from Milan, official referee since 2007 and international referee since 2016) and by Roberto Boris (from Vigevano, in Serie A since 1997 and international referee since 2010). The two referees are at their third match together; one of which was Trento against Perugia 0-3, on January 27th 2018, in the Coppa Italia semifinal in PalaFlorio in Bari. Simbari already directed Trentino Volley against Ravenna on October 25th. 3-0 for Ravenna, while Boris directed Trento-Latina and Milano-Trento.
RADIO, INTERNET AND TV The match will be covered live and fully by Radio Dolomiti, network partner of Trentino Volley. Inside the magazine “Campioni di Sport”, starting from 5:55pm, the audience will listen to the connections with the BLM Group Arena. The frequencies to listen to the station are available on the www.trentinovolley.it home page and on www.radiodolomiti.com the live streaming broadcast. The live video streaming on “Lega Volley Channel” at www.elevensports.it/superlega requires payment.
On television, the full replica of the match will be streamed on Monday April 2nd, at 9:50pm on RTTR, tv partner of Trentino Volley.
On internet, live updates of the match will be available on the Lega Pallavolo Serie A website (www.legavolley.it) and on www.trentinovolley.it, as well as on the Yellow-blue social networks (www.trentinovolley.it/facebook e www.trentinovolley.it/twitter).
LANZA RECEIVES THE “UNIPOLSAI MVP” AWARD OF THE QUARTER FINALS On Sunday, right before the match, Filippo Lanza, captain of Diatec Trentino, will be awarded by Lega Pallavolo Serie A with the award as best UnipolSai player of the quarterfinals Play Off Scudetto. The Yellow-blue number 10 achieved this award thanks to his MVP performance in game 3 against Verona and scoring 43 points in the three matches of the quarterfinals.
TICKETS AND MERCHANDISING The match is not included in the season pass bundle; season pass holders have had until Wednesday the pre-emption right to purchase their tickets. Presale is still active on internet at www.vivaticket.it/ita/event/semifinale-gara-2-diatec-trentino-perugia/110759. The tickets will be available also at the BLM Group Arena of Trento ticket office, open at 5pm.
Inside the arena, behind the north side tribune, fans and supporters can find the merchandising point, selling a variety of Trentino Volley gadgets.
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