Trento, 27 March 2021

On Sunday in Civitanova (at 18) the series of Semifinal Play Off Scudetto 2021

On this weekend, the series of semifinals Play Off Scudetto SuperLega Credem Banca 2021 start. Itas Trentino, top of the league number three of the ranking, will face Cucine Lube Civitanova, the second qualified in regular season, in the contest that is played at the best of the fifth matches. On Sunday 28 March at 18 at the Eurosuole Forum in Civitanova Marche, match 1 is played: live on RAI Sport + and Radio Dolomiti.
HERE ITAS TRENTINO After qualifying at the Final of 2021 CEV Champions League, the gialloblù formation returns to focus on the run for 2020/21 Italian trophy, trying another challenge: exclude the last winners of the Scudetto. It necessarily needs (at least) one away victory on a field traditionally difficult for Trentino Itas like that of Civitanova Marche.
“We’re facing Cucine Lube that already in the quarterfinals, even if it hadn’t some of its best players, showed its unity and strength, eliminating a great opponent like Modena – said the coach Angelo Lorenzetti during the presentation of the match - . Having all its players will give our opponents even more strength, but this is also the good of the Play Off, a moment of the season in which if you pass the round, you will face increasingly good teams. From our point of view, we face this new away appointment with the willingness to recover our energies at best to show our big desire to play until the end”.
The coach of Trento can count on all the players of the team, who left for the Marche immediately after lunch. Match 1 will be the forty-two seasonal match of Trentino Volley, the 887th official of its history. It’s going to be the debut in a semifinal of Play Off scudetto of the Italian championship for five members of the team (Sperotto, Cortesia, Lucarelli, Michieletto, and Sosa Sierra); instead, Giannelli is the player who counts the greatest number in the gialloblù jersey (21 matches in five previous series).
THIRTEENTH SEMIFINAL PLAY OFF SCUDETTO FOR TRENTINO VOLLEY On Sunday, the thirteen Semifinal of the Play Off Scudetto in eighteen participations in Trentino Volley history starts, the twelfth in the latest fourteen years. The gialloblù Company passed the round in eight cases, entering in the final; the only negative precedents date back to 2005/06 season, played against Sisley Treviso (1-3), 2015/16 season with Modena as opponent (1-3), 2017/18 season with Perugia (2-3) and the last one with Civitanova (1-3 – 2018/19). In each of the twelve semifinal series played previously, Trentino Volley has won at least one match. In the Play Off, Trento has played 120 matches overall, winning in 72 cases (including 23 away) and losing in 48 cases (including 34 away). The player who has the most attendances in this phase with the gialloblù jersey is Emanuele Birarelli, arriving in 2014/15 season to 60 (21 of them are related to the matches of semifinal scudetto). The player of the current team is Simone Giannelli: 44 attendances, including 21 in the semifinal.
THE OPPONENTS The winner of the last edition of Play Off Scudetto (2019, considering that the pandemic stopped the one of 2020), Cucine Lube Civitanova inaugurates at home the series of semifinal with the aim of going to the Final, a result that happened five times in the eight previous participations. The start of the contest with Itas Trentino will see the team of the Marches retrieving two important players like the setter De Cecco and the spiker Leal, who in the latest days went back in the team after being recovered from Covid-19. This is the twenty-fourth presence in the Play Off Scudetto for the Club of the Marches, which is able to obtain the final victory in five cases; three like Macerata and two like Civitanova Marche.
THE PRECEDENTS Cucine Lube is the opponent faced several times by Trentino Volley in its history: there are 77 official matches in its history; the report is of 34 victories and 43 defeats. The two companies are facing each other for the fifth time in the Play Off Scudetto, the third in the semifinal; the contest was played in the same phase in the 2010 ranking, when Itas Diatec Trentino won in four matches (3-1), then defeated by Cuneo in Bologna in the next V-Day, and in the 2019 ranking, when Lube won the series for 3-1 (then the winner in the final with Perugia). Always in the Play Off, the two Clubs played also two Finals (2012 and 2017 editions), both won by the team of the Marches. Trento and Lube faced each other in the Semifinal in the Italian Cup as well (three times – in 2016, 2019, 2020 editions) and Champions League (two times, in 2009 and 2016 editions). Four the seasonal precedents, with two victories each and the field factor always respected: the ones of Itas Trentino date back to 13 September (3-2 in the first round of semifinal of Supercoppa) and 14 December (3-0 in regular season), while the ones of Lube date back to 20 September (2-3 in the second round of Supercoppa) and 7 October (0-3 in championship). Trentino Volley has never won at the Eurosuole Forum: fourteen defeats in as many matches played (seventeen, considering also the three matches of Supercoppa played against Perugia and Modena between 2017 and 2019).
THE SERIES The semifinals, just like the Final, are played at the best of the fifth matches. The series potentially develops over a fifteen-day calendar: after match 1, the teams go to Trento for match 2 scheduled on Thursday 1 at 20, while match 3 is scheduled in Marche on Easter (time to be defined). The potential matches 4 and 5 will be played, if necessary, on Wednesday 7 April at the BLM Group Arena (temporary time 20.30) and then on Sunday 11 April at 18 in Marche. The one that passes the round will find in the Final the winning team of Perugia-Monza, a series that starts already this evening at 20.15 in Umbria.
THE REFEREES The match will be directed by Umberto Zanussi (in the maximal category from 2006) and Massimo Florian (second referee from 2007). It is the fifteenth seasonal direction in SuperLega for Zanussi; the last precedent with Trento dates back to 27 January (home 3-0 with Milano in the quarterfinals of the Italian Cup). It is the thirteenth appointment in the biggest series of this season for Florian; the only gialloblù precedent is the A22 derby with Modena, won in three sets at the BLM Group Arena the last 9 December.
TV, RADIO AND INTERNET The match is a global event and will be live on tv, radio and Internet. It will be broadcast live by RAI Sport +, channel present both on the digital terrestrial platform (number 57 in HD, 58 in SD) and on the Sky satellite platform at number 227, with the report by Maurizio Colantoni and Andrea Lucchetta; the game is on streaming video-audio also on the app RaiPlay.
Starting at 18, the match will have a full and live coverage by Radio Dolomiti, media partner of Trentino Volley. The frequencies can be found on www.radiodolomiti.com, where it will be possible to listen to the radio commentary in streaming at the section “On Air”.
On tv, the full match is broadcasted on Monday 29 March at 21 on RTTR, tv partner of Trentino Volley.
On Internet, the point-by-point updates will be made by the website of Lega Pallavolo Serie A (www.legavolley.it)  and by www.trentinovolley.it and they will be always active on the gialloblù Social Network (www.trentinovolley.it/facebook, www.trentinovolley.it/instagram and www.trentinovolley.it/twitter).

Trentino Volley Srl
Press Office