Trento, 15 April 2023

Play Off Scudetto, game 2 of the 2023 Semifinal on Sunday in Piacenza

Game 2 of the Credem Banca 2023 Scudetto Playoff Semifinal will be played on Sunday, April 16th at the PalaBanca in Piacenza. Itas Trentino will visit Gas Sales Bluenergy, finding themselves ahead 1-0 in the series, which is a best-of-five match. Kickoff scheduled at 6 p.m.: live coverage on Radio Dolomiti and live streaming on the OTT Volleyball World Tv platforms.
HERE IS ITAS TRENTINO After the significant and valuable victory in Game 1, the yellow-blue lineup travels to Emilia to try to win once again, in order to take a double lead and look at the second part of the series with a better chance of passing the round.
"The success achieved on Thursday was obviously satisfying and essential, but we know perfectly well that on Sunday the situation on the court could be very different from what we saw in Game 1" explained coach Angelo Lorenzetti at the presentation of the match; “Therefore, the satisfaction of winning that match should not make us lose sight of the real difficulty involved in facing a Piacenza team in its facility, where it usually expresses its best game, starting from the serve. To be able to hinder it adequately we will have to raise our level in the sideout phase and to play with great intensity, but also the right mentality, an essential element in order to not lose the control of the match in the moment in which our opponents will be able to corner us."
The Itas Trentino lineup will complete its preparation for the appointment with this afternoon's training at the BLM Group Arena and Sunday morning's training at the PalaBanca, where it will present itself with the full team.
SEVEN WINS AND SEVEN DEFEATS IN PREVIOUS GAME 2 SEMIFINAL Trentino Volley has already played fourteen times (out of the previous nineteen total appearances) a Game 2 of the Semifinal Playoff Scudetto, collecting as many victories as defeats (7). The successes are related to the 3-0 win in the 2008 series achieved in Rome, the 3-2 in the 2009 series in Cuneo, the 3-2 in the 2010 series in Macerata, the 3-0 in the 2012 series in Frosinone against Latina, the 3-2 achieved in Cuneo in 2013, the 3-2 won at home against Perugia in 2018, and the 3-0 in Trento against Civitanova in that 2022. Also, in terms of numbers, Sunday will be the 45th match of the season for the yellow-blue team (tally 33 victories and 11 defeats), the 988th official match ever, the 138th in the Playoff Scudetto, in which can the Street Trener club boast 81 overall victories, of which 26 (out of 65 matches played) won in away matches.
THE OPPONENTS Gas Sales Bluenergy is ready to host Trento for the second time this season at the PalaBanca with the goal of getting the point of the tie in the series and confirm the inviolability of their home facility against the yellow-blue team in the ongoing championship. Thursday night's away-match defeat confirmed the home court factor and will force Botti's team to do the same in order not to find themselves already next Wednesday back in Trento with the result of 0-2. The Emilians players have won four of their last five games in front of their public and also on this occasion, they will be able to count on many spectators; in fact, it will be a sold-out. For the new Piacenza club, born in 2018, Sunday's will be the twelfth match ever in the Playoff Scudetto (balance: 4 wins and 7 losses); as many as six of these have been played against Trento, which has won in five instances. The only defeat was in a match played at PalaBanca (Game 2 of the Playoff quarterfinals, played on April 3rd, 2022).
THE BACKGROUND Piacenza is the third opponent that Trentino Volley has faced the most times in its history: a total of 69 (a balance of 47-22), including the thirteen matches in the Scudetto Final in the 2008 Playoff editions (yellow-blue team victory by 2-1), 2009 (Emilian success by 2-3) and 2013 (Trentino tricolor by 3-2), the ten matches in the 2005 quarterfinals (Piacenza victory 3-2), 2021 (Trentino success 2-0) and 2022 (Trento again, but this time 2-1). With the exception of the 2021 edition, each time that the two teams have faced each other in the Playoffs it has always taken a tie-breaker match to determine the name of the winner. During the current season, the balance is in favor of Gas Sales Bluenergy 3-1; among the white-red team successes was also the one achieved in four sets on October 16th at PalaBanca with sets of 23-25, 25-18, 25-22, 25-22 and Romanò as MVP. Trento has not won in Emilia since February 27th, 2022 (3-1 in regular season), having lost the last two challenges (in the tally also the 2-3 in Game 2 of the Playoff quarterfinals on April 3rd, 2022).
THE SERIES Itas Trentino ahead 1-0 in the Playoff Semifinal series being played at the best-of-five games, as a result of the 3-0 win accrued last April 13rd at the BLM Group Arena with sets of 25-23, 25-22 and 25-18. Sunday's Game 2, which could be the only one to be played in Emilia only in the event of two more victories for the yellow-blue team between this match and the next one (Game 3) on Wednesday, April 19th in Trento (8:30 p.m.). If Gas Sales Bluenergy wins at least one of the next two challenges, Game 4 will also be necessary, which will be played again at PalaBanca on Saturday, April 22nd at 8:30 p.m.. Whoever passes the round will find in the Final (also best-of-five games, it will kick off on April 30th) the winner of the semifinal Civitanova-Milan, which sees the players from Marche ahead 1-0 (Game 2 in Lombardy on Sunday).
THE REFEREES The match will be managed by Marco Zavater, first referee from Rome, and Alessandro Cerra, second referee from Bologna. For Zavater, in Serie A since 2008, it will be the 18th SuperLega match of the season; two of those are referred to a confrontation between Trento and Piacenza: January 8th at the BLM Group Arena (1-3) and February 26th in Rome (0-3, Coppa Italia final). For Cerra, on the roster since 2014, 14th season match in SuperLega; two of those are related to Trentino Volley, the last of which was last March 25th (3-1 home win over Monza in the quarterfinals).
RADIO, INTERNET AND TV Game 2 will be reported live by 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 will also be available on the OTT platform "Volleyball World TV", the service is pay-per-view. For further information on the use of the same consult www.welcome.volleyballworld.tv/faq-it. On TV, the match recap will be aired on Monday, April 17th at 9:40 p.m., on RTTR - partner TV the Trener Street’s club. Eventually, on the Internet point-to-point updates will be edited by the website of the Italian Volley League Serie A (www.legavolley.it) , 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