Rome, 24 February 2023

2023 Del Monte® Coppa Italia Final Four starts in Rome

Starting on Saturday, February 25th at the Palazzo dello Sport in Rome is the Final Four of the Del Monte® Italy Cup 2023. Itas Trentino will be starring in the second semifinal, in which it will take on Allianz Milano: kickoff is scheduled at 6 p.m.. Live on RAI Sport HD, Radio Dolomiti and live streaming on the OTT Volleyball World Tv platform.
HERE ITAS TRENTINO The yellow-blue lineup comes to the Eternal City backed by five victories in the last six matches (the only defeat on February 12th in the tie break with Perugia) and third place in the standings, just one point behind Modena. The gap from the Emilians players was halved just last weekend, thanks to the tie break success on the court of Milan, which Kaziyski and his teammates found again on this very occasion, as had happened in the last three editions of the competition. In order to try to gain access to the Coppa Italia final, which was already detached a year ago thanks to a victory in the semifinals over Allianz, they will need to confirm themselves in a one-off match as well.
“We want to experience a semifinal as protagonists, putting in play our best because getting to play it was not easy and so we have to fully enjoy what we we have conquer” stated coach Angelo Lorenzetti on the eve of the game,“The SuperLega this season is very competitive; to still be among the four teams that will play for this trophy is a pride, but also a great satisfaction. Facing the Milan team again, as happened in the previous edition at the same stage of the scoreboard and as happened in the previous weekend, is an additional challenge: we will have to be capable and not take anything for granted and preparing for a match that could be very different from last Sunday's. Having won at the Allianz Cloud does not in fact give us any position of advantage over the match we are about to play. The level of the two teams is very similar and small details or specific game situations in each set will make the difference.”
Having reached Rome on Thursday evening, the yellow-blue team will hold a training session of about ninety minutes at the Palazzo dello Sport late this afternoon; a useful opportunity to get the reference points compared to a very big facility and to further test their condition. Itas Trentino will present itself to this game with the entire team, taking into account that Lisinac also played regularly the last sessions with the group. Saturday's match will be the 977th official one in the history of Trentino Volley (balance: 678 victories and 298 defeats), the 531th to be played in an away match, where Trento has scored fourteen times during this season.
TRENTINO VOLLEY'S HISTORY IN THE COPPA ITALIA It is the eve of the sixteenth Coppa Italia Final Four ever for the Trener Street’s club; twenty-one total participations in the competition, won in 2010 by overcoming Modena (3-0) in the semifinals and then Cuneo (3-1, on January 31st in Montecatini) and curiously twice in the 2012 calendar year: 2011/12 edition right at the Palazzo dello Sport in Rome, beating Belluno (3-0) and Macerata (3-2) between February 18th and 19th and 2012/2013 edition at the Assago Forum, achieved by outdoing Vibo Valentia (3-0) and Macerata (3-1) between December 29th and 30th. On the other occasions, however, the adventure of the yellow-blue team had stopped in three instances at the hands of Cuneo with as many 3-0 victories (on February 2, 2002 at the Forum of Assago, on January 28th, 2006 at the PalaFiera of Forlì in the semifinals, on January 23th, 2011 at the PalaOlimpia of Verona in the final), in one circumstance at the hands of Piacenza (1-3 on March 8th, 2014 at the PalaDozza of Bologna in the semifinals), in the 2014 and 2015 editions (January 11th, 2015 and February 7th, 2016) at the hands of Modena in the Final, in the 2017 one with Civitanova in the Final, in the 2018 one in the semifinals with Perugia in Bari (January 27th, 2018), in the 2019 and 2020 editions again at the hands of Lube in the semifinals (2-3, February 9th, 2019 and February 22th, 2021), in the 2021 one in the semifinals with Perugia (0-3, January 30th, 2021) and in the last one again with the Umbrians players but this time in the Final (1-3, March 6th, 2022). In the Coppa Italia Trentino Volley has so far played a total of forty-seven matches, winning twenty-seven, including the last one (on December 28th, 3-1 in Modena). The players with the highest number of appearances in this event with the yellow-blue jersey are Colaci and Kaziyski with 21; Matey himself is, together with Podrascanin, the only player to have already won the trophy in the yellow-blue lineup (3 editions).
IN ROME, 22 YEARS AFTER THE FIRST TIME The Eternal City evokes splendid memories for Trentino Volley, which precisely at the Palazzo dello Sport won not only one of the three victories in the competition, but also won its second scudetto (year 2011, thanks to a 3-0 victory over Cuneo on May 15th). Besides, the Trener Street’s club also boasts a particularly nice statistical tradition; even taking into account matches played against local teams (Roma Volley first, M. Roma Volley later), it has so far only ever won in Rome: 10 matches and 10 victories. The first time exactly twenty-two years ago: on February 25th, 2001, the then Itas Gruppo Diatec Trentino played at the Palazzetto in Tiziano Street the match against Ford for the Bambino Gesù, winning it 3-1.
THE OPPONENTS Allianz Milano is about to play in the Lazio region, one of the most important games in its young club history. Only in the last season the Lombard Club of the President Fusaro had in fact reached the semi-finals of the Coppa Italia and even then it played against Trento (which eliminated it). The new goal was achieved by ousting Italian Champion Civitanova for the second consecutive year, winning against them the quarterfinal match played in the Marche region. It was a result that made the sixth overall participation of the club from Milan in the Coppa Italia unforgettable, further proving that in a knock-out match Roberto Piazza's team can win against any opponent. This is also confirmed by the exploits obtained in the regular season, where it is firmly in eighth place in the rankings, and in which it has twice imposed a stop to Modena’s team.
THE PROGRAM OF THE FINAL FOUR On Saturday, February 25th, the semifinals will be played at the Palazzo dello Sport in Rome; before Trento-Milan, the match between Perugia and Piacenza will be played at 3:30 p.m. The following day, Sunday, February 26th, the final between the two winners is scheduled at 4 p.m. and it will be attended by the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella. The semifinals will be broadcast live on RAI Sport HD, and the final on RAI 2.
THE BACKGROUND The semifinal will replay a confrontation that has already been staged on three occasions in the last three editions of the competition and in no less than four circumstances in the last twelve months, also taking into account the matches played in the regular season (3). Indeed, Trentino Volley and Powervolley Milan have faced each other in the quarterfinals of the competition both in 2020 (3-0 win for the yellow-and-blue team in Milan on January 23rd, 2020, with sets of 23-25, 19-25, 19-25) and in 2021 (another 3-0 victory, this time on January 27th at the BLM Group Arena with scores of 3-0 25-22, 25-21, 25-21) and then also in the semifinals of the 2022 edition (3-0 for Trento in Bologna on March 5th with sets of 25-14, 25-20, 25-20). In total, there are 21 official games already played, with a positive tally for Trentino Volley at 18-3; in the current season, two confrontations with one win on each side, during away matches: 3-1 win for Milan on November 26th at the BLM Group Arena, and 3-2 win for Trento at the Allianz Cloud on February 19th. The one in Rome will be the second match played on a neutral court between the two Societies.
THE REFEREES Fipav has designated the six referees who will manage semifinals and finals, but has not yet announced the composition of the pairs in each individual match. The selected list can count on Stefano Cesare (Rome), Massimo Florian (Altivole, Treviso), Mauro Carlo Goitre (Turin), Andrea Puecher (Rubano, Padua), Rossella Piana (Carpi, Modena) and Marco Zavater (Rome). All boast at least one previous season match with Trentino Volley.
RADIO, INTERNET AND TV 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, Fabio Vullo and Andrea Lucchetta. As always, 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, February 27th at 9:40 p.m., on RTTR - partner TV of Trener Street’s Society. 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