Trento, 14 April 2018
On Sunday match 4 of Championship Play Offs semi-finals 2018 at BLM Group Arena
Giannelli and Eder blocked Zaytsev during game 2 (ph. Trabalza)
Match 4 of the 2018 Play Off Scudetto UnipolSai semi-finals will take place on Sunday April 15th at BLM Group Arena in Trento; Diatec Trentino faces Sir Safety Conad Perugia looking for the equalising victory and at the same time nullifying the first chance to win the five games series for the opponent. Start of the match is scheduled at 6pm: live broadcast on Radio Dolomiti and live streaming on Lega Volley Channel by clicking at www.elevensports.it/superlega.
HERE DIATEC TRENTINO Yellow-blues face this semi-finals challenge with the necessity of a victory in order to keep dreaming for the Championship final. Game 2 and 3 confirmed that Lanza and his teammates can play on equal terms with their opponents; this time they will advantage from the court factor, which was always respected in the last eleven semi-finals matches against Perugia (6 home matches in Trento, 5 in Perugia since 2015).
“Thanks to what we accomplished in the first three games of the series, we proved we deserve to play game 4 in front of our fans- stated coach Angelo Lorenzetti -. We want to live in full, as a great opportunity to close the gap between the two teams and as proof that we believe in ourselves. Perugia is a great team and will arrive in Trento hyped for their qualification to the Champions League Final Four; we will try to challenge them from the beginning and show them determination and team spirit: key factors that helped us win game 2”.
Diatec Trentino coach will direct the last trainings at BLM Group Arena before game 4 and decide which players will start in the starting six; on Wednesday night in Champions against Civitanova opposite Luca Vettori proved to be back in full and will be an important alternative. The match on Sunday represents the 47th official match of the season for Trentino Volley, the 762nd in its history, 110th in Scudetto Play Off (66win and 43 defeats), in which since 2011 only four defeats on 32 matches played: against Modena (0-3 game 1 2014 quarter finals, 2-3 and 1-3 in 2016 semi-final) and Civitanova (2-3 game 2 2017 final).
ONE VICTORY AND FOUR DEFEATS IN THE LAST SEMIFINAL GAME 4 MATCHES In the past Trentino Volley has already played five (out of the fifteen participations) game 4 Play Off Scudetto semi-finals, winning one match and losing four. The only success dates back to the 2010 away 3-2 victory against Lube, while four defeats occurred against Treviso in 2006 2-3 at Palatrento, 1-3 in 2011 and in 2016 0-3 against Modena and at PalaEvangelisti against Perugia in 2017.
THE OPPONENTS Sir Safety Conad Perugia will come to Trento for the third time this season to make the most of their first chance to end the series. After having obtained the advantage thanks to the victory of match 3, the team from Umbria will try to conquer BLM Group Arena for the first time during the Play Offs (it didn’t ever manage to conquer Trentino Volley’s hall in the previous six matches) to achieve the qualification to the third Final of the Club’s history.
Bernardi’s team is coming from the long away trip to Novosibirsk, where it won the two sets it need to achieve their presence, for the second season in a row, to the Final Four of Champions League. More than two-hundreds supporters will come from Perugia and they will be sit, as already happened during match 2, in the East supporter area.
THE BACKGROUND The eighth seasonal match between Diatec Trentino and Sir Safety Conad Perugia, the twenty-eighth overall, will be played at BLM Group Arena of Trento. The regular season balance is in 6-1 in favour of the team from Umbria (the only one victory for the yellow-blues was match 2 in Trento), but the overall one is instead 15-12 in favour of Trentino Volley. In the hall of via Fersina the hosts obtained only two victories on thirteen previous matches, interrupting a negative series of eight defeats in a row on February 4th, thanks to a 3-0 victory. The clash took already place eleven times during Championship Play Offs, with six victories for Trento and five for Perugia.
THE SERIES Sir Safety Conad Perugia is 2-1 ahead 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), to the 3-2 obtained by the hosting team at PalaTrento during match 2 on April 1st (30-28, 20-25, 25-19, 25-22, 15-10) and to the 3-2 of Perugia in Umbria on April 7th (25-27, 25-13, 21-25, 25-17, 15-13). On Sunday match 4 will be played and it could be the last match of the series in case of Bernardi’s team victory, if Diatec Trentino would be able to win tomorrow’s match as well, match 5 would be necessary and would eventually be played at PalaEvangelisti again on Wednesday 18th or Thursday 19th of May again at 8.30 p.m. Who will achieve the qualification of the Final (which will be with the best-of-five formula as well) will face the winning team between Civitanova and Modena with the team from Marche 2-1 ahead (On Sunday match 4 at PalaPanini).
REFEREES The match will be whistled by Giorgio Gnani, first referee from Ferrara, and Alessandro Tanasi, second referee from Noto (Siracusa). This will be the twenty-first seasonal match for Gnani, who has been referee since 1997 and international since 2009. He whistled four matches for Trentino Volley this season, with four victories: 3-1 home victory versus Castellana Grotte on October 28th, 3-1 victory in Frosinone versus Sora on December 13th and versus Verona on January 21st and 3-0 victory at PalaTrento on March 24th again versus Verona. This will instead be the 15th seasonal match for Tanasi, who has been in Serie A since 2002. Only one of the matches whistled by Tanasi saw Trento as a protagonist this season: 1-3 home defeat versus Civitanova on January 14th.
RADIO, INTERNET AND TV The match will be live commented by Radio Dolomiti, network partner of Trentino Volley. Links with BLM Group Arena will be performed inside of “Campioni di Sport”, the sport container of the radio of via Missioni Africane, starting from 5.55 p.m. On the site www.radiodolomiti.com will be possible to listen to the frequencies and the live commentary on streaming.
A live streaming video will also available on “Lega Volley Channel”, on the Internet by clicking at www.elevensports.it/superlega; service on payment.
The deferred match will be broadcast on the tv on Monday April 16th at 9.50 p.m. on RTTR, tv partner of the Club of via Trener.
Lastly, on the Internet point-to-point updates will be performed by the site of Lega Pallavolo Serie A (www.legavolley.it) and by the same www.trentinovolley.iy and will be always active on the yellow-blue Social Networks (www.trentinovolley.it/facebook and www.trentinovolley.it/twitter).
TICKETS AND MERCHANDISING The match is not included in the seasonal ticket; the seasonal ticket owners will have time until Friday April 6th to use their right of pre-emption. The pre-sale is already active on the Internet by clicking at www.vivaticket.it/ita/event/semifinale-gara-4-diatec-trentino-perugia/110967. The coupons will be available at the cashiers of BLM Group Arena in Trento as well, starting from 5 p.m., the same moment during which the hall entrances will be opened. The cashiers will be open until the end of the second set, from that moment it won’t be possible anymore to enter the hall to see the rest of the match.
Inside, just behind the north bleachers, the supporters will find at their disposal a yellow-blue merchandising point, a large variety of Trentino Volley items will be on sale.
Trentino Volley Srl
Press Office
