Trento, 27 December 2022

Wednesday in Modena the Quarterfinal of 2023 Coppa Italia

The four quarterfinals of the 45th edition of the Del Monte® Coppa Italia will be played between December 28th and 29th. Itas Trentino will make its season debut in the away competition, facing host Valsa Group on Wednesday at PalaPanini in Modena: a one-off and knockout game. The winner will qualify for the Final Four, scheduled for the weekend of February 25th-26th, 2023, in Rome. Kickoff scheduled at 8:30 p.m.: live on Rai Sport + (channel 58 DGTV), Radio Dolomiti and live streaming on the OTT Volleyball World Tv platform.
HERE ITAS TRENTINO The yellow-blue lineup faces the last match of the 2022 calendar year with the need to score a victory in order not to have to already say goodbye at this point of the competition, at one of its many seasonal goals. For once, it will have to do so without being able to take advantage of the home advantage at this stage of the competition's scoreboard, but the two victories obtained in as many previous seasonal matches against Modena and the wonderful performance offered on Monday against Verona encourages to look at the match with optimism. "It is an in-and-out appointment, with all that entails from every point of view," explained Trentino Volley coach Angelo Lorenzetti introducing the match, he continues "Trentino Volley has been used to qualify for the Final Four for more than a decade, but in this case it will be more complicated to do so, partly because we are facing the quarterfinal match at PalaPanini and partly because we will be facing a team like Modena that is playing well and has found further confidence in its own means thanks to the important results obtained in the last period. A very difficult task ahead of us, but we leave Trento with the idea that we can do it again this time and that nothing comes by chance."
Itas Trentino will show up to the appointment full: Cavuto is also gradually healing his activity with the rest of the group that will reach Emilia as early as today evening, after having held the eve training at the BLM Group Arena. Among the yellow-blue players, the player who has played the most Coppa Italia editions is Marko Podrascanin, who on Wednesday will inaugurate his 15th participation in the highest national trophy, having already put in his palmares 3 successes (2009 edition with Lube, 2018 and 2019 editions with Perugia), the same number that Matey Kaziyski can boast (all won with Trento). Absolute rookies are: Martin Berger, Niccolò Depalma, Gabriele Laurenzano and Domenico Pace.
TRENTINO VOLLEY’S HISTORY IN COPPA ITALIA The one that starts Wednesday will be the 21st participation in the Coppa Italia quarterfinals in twenty-three seasons of activity for Trentino Volley, which missed the final phase of the competition only in its debut season in A1 (2000/01, eliminated in the quarterfinals of the preliminary phase by Cuneo) and in the last one under Lattari management (2006/07). On fifteen occasions, the Street Trener club made it through the quarterfinals, thus reaching the Final Four; in the last one, eliminating Monza with a peremptory 3-0 home win. The victory in the competition has come in three instances: January 31st, 2010 in Montecatini Terme thanks to a 3-1 win over Cuneo in the final, February 19th, 2012 with a 3-2 comeback win over Lube at the PalaLottomatica in Rome, and December 30th, 2012 with a 3-1 win again over Lube at the Assago Forum. A total of eight finals have been played, taking into account also those lost to Cuneo (2010/11), Modena (2014/15 and 2015/16), Civitanova (2016/17) and, during the last season, to Perugia.  In the other five participations, the elimination has instead come directly in the quarterfinals: in 2002/03 at the hands of Macerata, in 2003/04 at the hands of Cuneo, in 2004/05, in 2007/08 and in 2008/09 both signed by Treviso. The total number of matches played in the event is 46: the tally is 26 victories and 20 losses (the last in the Final with Perugia on March 6th).
THE OPPONENTS The third place conquered at the end of the first half of the season will allow Valsa Group Modena to be able to play an in or out confrontation with the historic rival Trentino Volley within the home turf of PalaPanini. An advantage earned thanks to the great end of the 2022 calendar year marked by seven consecutive three-point victories between the sixth and thirteenth matchday of the championship. To achieve that Final Four qualification (a goal missed in the previous season) in its 40th overall participation in the trophy, Giani's team will rely not only on the support of its public but also on the quality of its game, which in the last period has become more and more well-tested and effective. The growth of the opposite Lagumdzija, awarded as MVP of the month of November, and the consistency of performance of three experienced players such as Stankovic, Bruno and Ngapeth have relaunched the Emilian quotations and guaranteed satisfactions in series, the last one just on Monday night thanks to the 3-0 achieved in Piacenza. However, the dream of achieving a 13th Coppa Italia victory will pass through the hands of these players but also through the ability to increase their performance of Rinaldi and Sanguinetti.
THE FORMULA OF THE 2023 DEL MONTE® COPPA ITALIA On December 28th and 29th, the quarter finals will be played, knockouts matches with pairing defined by  the standings of the first round of the SuperLega Credem Banca regular season. Modena-Trento is the only one to be played on Wednesday; the others are played simultaneously on Thursday at 8:30 p.m.: Perugia-Cisterna, Civitanova-Milan and Verona-Piacenza. The Final Four is scheduled for the weekend of February 25th-26th at the PalaEur in Rome: Saturday 25th the semifinals (whoever wins at PalaPanini will take on the winner of Civitanova-Milan). Sunday, February 26th, the final.
BACKGROUND With 80 official matches already on record, Modena is the second club faced the most times in its twenty-three-year history by Trentino Volley; only Civitanova (90 games) has a greater number. The overall tally is in favor of Trento 46-34; five of these were played precisely in the Coppa Italia: January 30th, 2010 in Montecatini Terme (semifinal, Trentino win 3-0), January 29th, 2014 in Trento (quarterfinal, home win 3-1), January 11th, 2015 in Bologna (final, Emilian win 1-3), February 7th, 2016 in Milan (final, Emilian win 3-0) and January 28th, 2017 in Bologna (semifinal, 3-2 for Trento). In the historic Emilian facility, the Street Trener club has won eighteen of the thirty-eight official matches played against the Valsa Group, including a 3-1 victory last October 26th (match in the first leg of the current regular season, with sets of 21-25, 21-25, 27-25, 20-25). During this season, the two teams also faced each other on November 1st in Cagliari for the third-place Supercoppa final (3-1 for Trento: 25-14, 23-25, 33-31, 25-18).
THE REFEREES The match will be managed by the duo Andrea Puecher (from Rubano – Padova, in the highest category since 2003 and international one since 2013) and by Stefano Cesare (from Roma, in the highest category since 1999 and international one since 2010). Puecher has met Trentino Volley during   two home wins, 3-2 victory over Cisterna (October 23rd) and 3-0 victory over Taranto (November 13th), while Cesare has previously managed Perugia-Trento 3-1 loss, during this season on November 20th.
RADIO, TV AND INTERNET The match will be a global media event, enjoying simultaneous live coverage on television, radio and the Internet. On the small screen it will be broadcast by RAI Sport +, a channel present on the digital terrestrial platform at number 58 with coverage entrusted to Maurizio Colantoni and Andrea Lucchetta. Live coverage is planned on Radio Dolomiti, media partner of Trentino Volley. Frequencies to listen to the regional network can be found at www.radiodolomiti.com, where it will also be possible to follow the radio report in live streaming. The live video streaming on the OTT platform "Volleyball World Tv” is also confirmed, the service is for a fee. For more in-depth information on the use of the same consult the site www.welcome.volleyballworld.tv/faq-it. On TV the match recap will be aired on Monday, January 2nd at 9:40 p.m., on RTTR - partner TV of Trentino Volley. Eventually, on the Internet point-to-point updates will be edited by the website of the Italian Volley League Serie A (www.legavolley.it) and by www.trentinovolley.it itself and will always be active on the yellow-blue’s team social networks (www.trentinovolley.it/facebook, www.trentinovolley.it/instagram and www.trentinovolley.it/twitter).

Trentino Volley Srl
Press Office