Casalecchio di Reno (Bologna), 08 February 2019

It’s time for Del Monte® Coppa Italia Final Four 2019 at Unipol Arena in Bologna

The Final Four of Del Monte® Coppa Italia 2019 is going to start at Unipol Arena in Casalecchio di Reno (Bologna). Itas Trentino is going to play the second semifinal, where it will face Cucine Lube Civitanova: the match will start at 18. Live on RAI Sport + and Radio Dolomiti.
HERE ITAS TRENTINO Itas Trentino is ready for this important appointment of the season, our players feel strong with their second ranking position and after an entire week of training. Giannelli and his mates are ready to try and beat Civitanova, their historical opponents, conquering in this way the access to the final of Coppa Italia, gained for the last time two years ago right here at Unipol Arena. “The last match played vs Cucine Lube Civitanova (last 12th of January in Trento) showed us that our opponents have the lead and that in order to achieve a better result we should do something more, yet bearing in mind that on that occasion we managed to do a lot – this was the remark of coach Angelo Lorenzetti during the press conference on the match presentation - . By doing this we should almost go beyond our limits, playing a match that requires more preparation compared to our usual level. I hope the team shows an excellent agonistic preparation but that at the same time they play cautiously because in these events being too much frantic could worsen things”.
Our players have reached Bologna today at lunch time and this evening they’re going to do a technical session for an hour and a half at Unipol Arena; in this way they can seize the opportunity to set their reference points in a very expanded arena where not many players have had the fortune to play so far.
Saturday’s challenge will be the 797th official match of Trentino Volley’s history (balance: 556 victories and 240 defeats) and the 443th away match, where Itas has always won on the last 14 occasions. The best record ever is one step closer and is represented by the 15 away victories gained consecutively in the season 2012/13 between the 13th of October (3-2 vs Al Rayan in Doha) and 22th December 2012 (3-0 in Vibo Valentia).
TRENTINO VOLLEY HISTORY IN COPPA ITALIA We are on the eve of the 12th Final Four of Coppa Italia ever for Itas Trentino; on the whole they participated 17 times at this event, that was won in 2010 beating Modena in the semifinal (3-0) and then Cuneo (3-1, on 31th of January in Montecatini) and twice in 2012: edition 2011/12 at PalaLottomatica in Rome beating Belluno (3-0) and Macerata (3-2), between the 18th and 19th of February and in the edition 2012/13 at Assago’s Forum beating Vibo Valentia (3-0) and Macerata (3-1) between 29th and 30th of December. On the other occasions instead Itas adventure always was struck because of Cuneo with others 3-0 (on the second of February 2002 always at Assago’s Forum, on 28th January 2006 at PalaFiera in Forlì during the semifinal, on 23th January 2011 at PalaOlimpia in Verona in the final), once because beaten by Piacenza (1-3 on the 8th of March 2014 at PalaDozza in Bologna), in 2014 and 2015 (11th of January 2015 and 7th February 2016) because of Modena in the final, in 2017 vs Civitanova in the final and in the last one (2018) in semifinal vs Perugia in Bari (27th January 2018). So far Trentino Volley has competed 38 matches in Coppa Italia, winning 22 of them, including the last one (23th of January 2019, 3-0 vs Verona). Our player who played the most in these event was Colaci, who between 2011 and 2017 was present in 21 of them. Giannelli instead is the one of the new roster with the highest number of Coppa Italia matches (12); Vettori (3 times), Candellaro, Grebennikov, Russell and Kovacevic (1) then are the ones who gained a place in the honour roll.
OPPONENTS Cucine Lube Civitanova is returning to Unipol Arena two years after its important victory: its fifth Coppa Italia, exactly against Trento on 29th January 2017 (3-1).
Its 25th participation in the competition started with the success 3-2 in the Quarterfinals against Monza and now goes on with the crash against Trento, which had “stolen” its victory in Poland on the last 2nd December. Cucine Lube Civitanova has now a new coach, De Giorgi, with whom the team had won two Coppa Italia in 2008 and 2009.
For this occasion it seems that De Giorgi would turn to Juantorena, who suffered physical problems during the match that let Lube move into the Final Four.
PROGRAMME OF THE FINAL FOUR On Saturday 9th February the semifinals will be played at the Unipol Arena: before the match Trento-Civitanova there will be Perugia-Modena at 15.30. The day after, on Sunday 10th February, the final between the winning teams will be played starting from 18. All matches live on RAI Sport+.
PREVIOUS MATCHES The second semifinal will be a match that has already been played twice during the last three editions (six in total) and six times during the last 12 months, including the matches of Regular Season, World Club Cup and Champions League.
Trento-Civitanova is a very important match for the Italian volleyball and it is proved by the 63 official matches already played; Lube prevails 32-31, thanks to 10 victories in the last 11 matches. The last victory of Trentino Volley has been during the Final of World Club Cup 2018, on 2nd December in Czestochowa (Polonia) with 3-1 (25-20, 22-25, 25-20, 25-18). Civitanova won 3-2 in Civitanova on 4th December and 3-1 at BLM Group Arena on 20th January.
REFEREES Fipav has already chosen the referees for the Semifinals and the Final but it hasn’t notified the final couples yet; we have to wait until tonight to know who will direct the matches. The roster can count on Stefano Cesare (Roma), Dominga Lot (Treviso), Andrea Puecher (Padova), Daniele Rapisarda (Udine), Simone Santi (Città di Castello, Perugia) ed Ilaria Vagni (Perugia). Exempt Rapisarda, the others all have already directed at least on match of Trentino Volley. 
TV, RADIO AND THE INTERNET The match will be an international event and it will be transmitted live on television, on the radio and on the Internet. It will be transmitted on RAI Sport + (digital terrestrial - channel 57 in HD, 58 in sd ; sky - channel 227 with comments by Maurizio Colantoni and Andrea Lucchetta and pre-match by Marco Fantasia). The imagines and shoots of the match will be posted also on the Internet, streaming video-audio www.raisport.rai.it; 26 international countries will be also connected to the match thanks to the radio Sportklub, Deportv, Polsat, Btv, Flosports E Dsmart.
As always, the complete commentary of the match will be transmitted by Radio Dolomiti, radio partner of Trentino Volley, starting from 17.55. The frequencies you need to listen to the regional network: www.radiodolomiti.com; here you can also follow our live commentary of the match.
The complete match will be transmitted on television on 11th February at 21.50, on RTTR - channel partner of Trentino Volley.
On the Internet, the minute-to-minute updates will be available on the website of Lega Pallavolo serie A (www.legavolley.it)  and on www.trentinovolley.it; Also the social networks of Trentino Volley will transmit the news and the most important updates (www.trentinovolley.it/facebook e www.trentinovolley.it/twitter).

Trentino Volley Srl
Press Office