Trento, 22 January 2019

Quarter-final match of Coppa Italia 2019 on Wednesday at BLM Group Arena

The four quarter-final matches of the 41st edition of Del Monte® Coppa Italia will be played between Wednesday January 23rd and Thursday January 24th. Itas Trentino will make its seasonal debut in the competition at BLM Group Arena facing Calzedonia Verona: knock-off formula. The winner will obtain the qualification to the Final Four, which is scheduled for February 9th – 10th in Bologna. The start of the match is scheduled for 8.30 p.m. of Wednesday: live broadcast on Radio Dolomiti and live streaming available on Lega Volley channel by clicking at www.elevensports.it/superlega.
HERE ITAS TRENTINO The yellow-blue team wants to turn over a new leaf after the defeat of Sunday versus Civitanova and has immediately a chance of doing this at home and to reach one of the main seasonal targets (Final Four of Coppa Italia).
“It is a knock-off match with all its subsequent effects – explained Trentino Volley’s coach Angelo Lorenzetti - . There are a lot of matches to be played during a long and important season such the one we’re living but few of them are actually delicate and decisive as the one we’re about to play. I pointed out this aspect to the team because I think that this kind of matches are the ones that really make the group grow as one; we have to start again making the most of what went wrong in the match versus Lube. We will face a Verona that has further reinforced itself with the arrival of Kaziyski, a player who doesn’t need any kind of presentation here in Trento”.
Itas Trentino will arrive at this date with all its roster: all the thirteen players of the roster are available and will train in the last training session scheduled before the match (tonight and on Wednesday morning). The player who played the biggest amount of editions of Coppa Italia among the Trentini is Luca Vettori, who will start his seventh participation to the main National trophy and already has 3 victories in a row in his palmares between 2014 and 2016. Lisinac and Codarin will make their debut in the competition.
TRENTINO VOLLEY’S HISTORY IN COPPA ITALIA The one starting with Verona will be for Trentino Volley the 17th participation to the quarter-finals of Coppa Italia in nineteen seasons of activity. The Club wasn’t able to reach the final phase of the competition only in its debut season in A1 (2000/01, eliminated in the quarter-finals of the preliminary phase by Cuneo) and during last Lattari’s management (2006/07). The Club of via Trener obtained the qualification to the Final Four eleven times. The victory of the competition arrived in three cases: on January 31st 2010 in Montecatini Terme thanks to the 3-1 victory versus Cuneo, on February 19th 2012 thanks to the 3-2 come-back victory versus Lube at PalaLottomatica of Rome and on December 30th 2012 with the 3-1 victory again versus Lube at Forum di Assago. The played finals are seven, taking into account to the lost ones versus Cuneo (2010/11), Modena (2014/15, 2015/16) and Civitanova (2016/17) as well. In the other five participations the elimination directly arrived during the quarter-finals: in 2002/03 versus Macerata, in 2003/04 versus Cuneo and in 2004/05, 2007/08 and 2008/09 versus Treviso.
FIRST MATCH AS A FORMER PLAYER IN TRENTO FOR MATEY KAZIYSKI After having worn the kit of Trentino Volley during eight different seasons, having reached 334 presences (203 as captain) and having scored 4.945 points (best scorer) who led to fifteen yellow-blues trophies, Matey Kaziyski will play on Wednesday his first match as a former player at BLM Group Arena. This won’t be his first overall match as an opponent versus Trentino Volley tough since he played versus its former team in Belo Horizonte (Brazil) on May 5th 2014 in Trento-Al Rayan 0-3, match of the first phase of the annual edition of World Club Championship. In that case the Bulgarian player (who will be awarded with a prize before the match by the Club) scored 11 points with 40% in attack for the team from Qatar.
OPPONENTS As was only to be expected, the arrival of Kaziyski allowed Calzedonia Verona to make a real step change. Grbic’s team has in fact obtained points in six of the seven matches played in SuperLega (versus Perugia and Civitanova as well), winning four of them, since the spiker from Sofia joined the team. The last victory, on Sunday in Veroli, was a 3-1 one that allowed the Scaligeri to confirm themselves at the sixth place in ranking. The good moment of the team from Veneto is also possible thanks to top-quality performances of the French opposite Boyer (best scorer of SuperLega with 375 points in 18 matches) and of the middle-blocker Solè, who is extraordinary in the net area nd in attack as well. The Argentine player often shares the center of the net with captain Birarelli (who is another former player together with the libero De Pandis), who often alternates with Alletti. Verona is the best team of the championship talking about blocks (Trento is a the second place, 186 to 163).
FORMULA OF DEL MONTE® COPPA ITALIA 2019 On Wednesday and Thursday will be played all the quarter-finals, knock-off matches, defined thanks to the going round ranking of regular season of SuperLega Credem Banca. Perugia-Padova will be played at the same time as Trento-Verona, whereas Civitanova-Monza and Modena-Milano will be played on January 24th. The Final Four will be played during the weekend of February 9th and 10th at UnipolArena of Bologna: the semi-finals are scheduled for Saturday 9th (the winner of the quarter-final of BLM Group Arena will face the winner between Lube and Vero Volley Monza). The Final will be on Sunday March 10th.
PREVIOUS MATCHES For the first time the Adige derby between Trentino Volley and Blu Volley Verona will be played in Coppa Italia; the only matches outside regular season so far were the Play Off Scudetto quarter finals in 2010 and 2018, both won by Trento in three games (3-0 and 2-1). On Wednesday night the two teams will face each other for the thirty sixth time, with 26 wins for Trento and 9 for Verona. Since November 2017, last home defeat against Verona, Trento won four times and Verona only once.
REFEREES The two referees of the match are Marco Zavater (in Serie A since 2008) and Bologna (in Serie A since 2014); they are at their sixth match together this season.
RADIO, TV AND INTERNET The match is broadcasted live on Radio Dolomiti, network partner of Trentino Volley, inside the magazine “Campioni di Sport”. On the website www.radiodolomiti.com are available the frequencies to listen to the match on the radio or the link for the streaming. On the “Lega Volley Channel”, at www.elevensports.it/superlega, a live video streaming service will be available in pay per view. The delayed replay of the match will be broadcast on Saturday January 26th at 9pm on RTTR, tv partner of Trentino Volley, and again replicated at midnight the same day. On the internet live updates are available on the Lega Pallavolo Serie A website (www.legavolley.it)  or on www.trentinovolley.it, as well as on the Social Network account of the Club  (www.trentinovolley.it/facebook e www.trentinovolley.it/twitter).
TICKETS AND MERCHANDISING The match is included in the 2018/19 season pass.
Presale of the tickets is open until 4pm on Wednesday at Trentino Volley offices (via Trener 2, Trento) and Promoevent, via Suffragio 10 in Trento, or anytime at www.vivaticket.it/ita/event/itas-trentino-verona-quarti-coppa-italia/125524. Tickets can also be bought at the BLM Group Arena offices, opening at 7:30 pm.

Trentino Volley Srl
Press Office