Trento, 21 April 2023

Play Off Scudetto, on Saturday (8.30 pm) in Piacenza game #4 of the Semifinal

Game 4 of the Credem Banca 2023 SuperLega Scudetto Play Off Semifinal will be played on Saturday 22 April at PalaBanca in Piacenza. For the second time in the series, Itas Trentino will be on stage in Emilia, searching for the third victory over Gas Sales Bluenergy that would guarantee them qualification to the Final, being ahead 2-1. Kick-off scheduled for 8.30 p.m., with live broadcast on Radio Dolomiti and live streaming on the OTT Volleyball World Tv platform.
HERE ITAS TRENTINO The yellow-blue are preparing to experience the last external confrontation of the series with the chance to play the second of three opportunities to gain access to the final round of the draw.
"It is an even more difficult commitment compared to game 3, but we have the chance to have our say as we did in the previous challenges," stressed coach Angelo Lorenzetti during the presentation - " . To be protagonists, however, we will have to keep up the level of our sideout phase and improve in the counter-attack phase, being able to capitalize more frequently on the opportunities that we build. We know the opponent's strength, but we have to stay focused on developing our game and on what we will experience ball after ball".
An important seasonal trend also speaks in favor of the yellow-blue; after a home loss, in fact, Itas Trentino has always won the next match; it happened after the 2-3 with Civitanova on 20 October (victory with Cisterna three days later), after the one with Milan on 26 November (success with Kedzierzyn-Kozle three days later), after the one with Piacenza on 8 January (victory in Roeselare three days later) and, finally, after the 2-3 with Perugia on 12 February (victory in Milan the following weekend). It will be Trentino Volley's 47th official match in the 2022/23 season, the 28th away match, the 140th in the Play Off Scudetto (balance 82 won and 57 lost). On this occasion the club from via Trener will play its 56th match in a Play Off Scudetto Semifinal, where it boasts 30 wins and 25 losses.
KAZIYSKI CAPTAIN FOR THE 300th TIME For this match, Matey Kaziyski will collect the presence number 300 with the Trentino Volley captain's armband, which he started wearing in 2009 (until 2013) and then returned to use from 2021. No player has held that role more than the Bulgarian star; second in this particular ranking is Filippo Lanza with 150, followed by Simone Giannelli with 130. The Kaiser in Piacenza will play his 427th official match with Trentino Volley (again, he is the recordman in terms of appearances).
TWO WINS AND SEVEN LOSSES IN THE PREVIOUS RACE 4 SEMIFINALS Trentino Volley  has already played a match 4 of the Scudetto Play Off Semifinals nine times in the past (out of a total of nineteen), with two wins and seven losses. The only successes are related to the 3-2 home win against Lube in the 2010 series and the 3-0 win against Perugia in 2018, while the seven losses are related to 2-3 at PalaTrento in the 2006 series against Treviso, 1-3 at PalaPanini in the 2011 series and at PalaTrento in 2016 against Modena, the 0-3 at PalaEvangelisti in the 2017 series against Perugia, the 0-3 at the Eurosuole Forum in Civitanova in the 2019 series, the 0-3 at the BLM Group Arena in the 2021 series, again with Civitanova, and the 1-3 at home with Lube in the 2022 series.
THE OPPONENTS Gas Sales Bluenergy Piacenza will receive the visit of Itas Trentino for the third time this season with the need to respect the court factor in order to continue to hope for qualification to the first Scudetto final of the new club, possibly the fifth in the history of the Emilian city. Only a success at the friendly venue, which again promises to be packed with fans, could in fact allow Botti's team to bring the series back to the BLM Group Arena for the fifth and decisive challenge and go in search of the second qualification from 0-2 down in this edition of the Play Off Scudetto.
THE BACKGROUND Piacenza is the third opponent that Trentino Volley has faced the most times in its history: a total of 71 (48-23 record), including the thirteen matches in the Scudetto Final in the 2008 Play Offs (2-1 win for the yellow-blue), 2009 (2-3 win in Emilia) and 2013 (3-2 win in Trentino) and the ten in the 2005 quarter-finals (3-2 win for Piacenza), 2021 (2-0 win in Trentino) and 2022 (Trento again, but this time 2-1). With the exception of the 2021 edition, every time the two teams have faced each other in the Play Off, a play-off match has always been needed to decide the name of the winner. In the current season, the balance favors Gas Sales Bluenergy 4-2; among the white-and-red victories is the one obtained in four sets on 16 October at the PalaBanca with scores of 23-25, 25-18, 25-22, 25-22 and Romanò MVP. However, Trento won the last previous one in Emilia (3-1 in the match on 16 April) and five of the seven most recent matches played in the opponent's home.
THE SERIES Itas Trentino is 2-1 ahead in the best-of-five semifinal series, thanks to a 3-0 win in game 1 in Trento on 13 April (25-23, 25-22, 25-20) and a 3-1 win in game 2 in Piacenza (25-19, 25-22, 20-25, 25-20), which Gas Sales Bluenergy only countered on Wednesday evening at the BLM Group Arena with an away 3-0 (23-25, 22-25, 20-25). If Piacenza wins the match on 22nd April, game 5 will also be necessary, which will be played again in Trento on Tuesday 25th April at 6pm. Whoever passes the round will find the winner between Civitanova and Milan in the Final (this series will also be a best-of-five match, starting on 1st May), with the Lombardi currently ahead 2-1 (game 4 on Saturday at 6pm at the Allianz Cloud).
THE REFEREES The match will be directed by Ilaria Vagni (first referee from Perugia) and Andrea Pozzato, second whistle from Bolzano. For Vagni, in Serie A since 2003 and international since 2014, seventeenth match of the season in SuperLega; one of these is for Trentino Volley: victory in Civitanova Marche in four sets on 21 January. For Pozzato, who has been on the roster since 2004, it is the sixteenth SuperLega match of the season, with two meetings with the Gialloblù: 2 October (3-1 home win over Siena) and 26 December (3-0 home win over Verona).
RADIO TV AND INTERNET Game 4 will be broadcast live on Radio Dolomiti, Trentino Volley’s media partner. The frequencies to listen to the regional network can be found on the website www.radiodolomiti.com, where it will also be possible to follow the live radio commentary in streaming.
Live video streaming will also be available on the OTT platform "Volleyball World Tv"; the service is subject to payment. For more information on how to use it, see www.welcome.volleyballworld.tv/faq-it.
On TV, the match highlights will be aired on RTTR, the club's TV partner in Via Trener, on Monday 24 April at 9.40 pm. On the Internet, finally, point-to-point updates will be provided by the Lega Pallavolo Serie A website (www.legavolley.it), by www.trentinovolley.it and will also be active on the yellow-blue social networks ( www.trentinovolley.it/facebook, www.trentinovolley.it/instagram and www.trentinovolley.it/twitter).

Trentino Volley Srl
Press Office