Trento, 10 November 2023

SuperLega, on Saturday home big match: Itas Trentino-Gas Sales Piacenza (8.30 pm)

The fourth round of the regular season of the SuperLega Credem Banca 2023/24 will be played next weekend. Italian champions Itas Trentino will be the protagonists of the only progression scheduled for Saturday 11 November, when they take on Gas Sales Bluenergy Piacenza at the ilT Quotidiano Arena in Trento in a match that will see the second and first teams in the league - the only two still unbeaten - meet. Live coverage on RAI Sport Hd, Radio Dolomiti and live streaming on the OTT Volleyball World Tv platform.
HERE ITAS TRENTINO Having won all three of their previous matches in the league, the yellow blue team is preparing for the first big home match of the season, hosting the team with whom they have played the most official matches in the current calendar year.
“The match against Piacenza is a prestigious and important date in our growth," said coach Fabio Soli, who announced the date - . The fact that the top two teams in the league and the only unbeaten teams in the championship will be playing each other adds to the importance of a match that would have been significant in its own right.Speaking of us, when we look back at the recent past and our position in the standings, we have to remember how difficult and hard it was for us to get our first victories. We are still far from the ideal physical and technical condition, but we are undoubtedly better than we were three weeks ago and we know that we still have a lot of growth ahead of us to withstand the impact of certain challenges. As always, there are many factors that will influence the final result; the approach to the match and the management of difficulties will be decisive, especially at a stage of the season when things don't always go as you would like. In Verona we improved in the break-point phase, but to be competitive in this situation we need to improve our continuity in the ball change phase as well. Piacenza are a team with a large squad and have kept the same line-up as last season; it is no coincidence that they are leading the table”.
The Trentino coach will have the entire squad of fourteen players at his disposal, and they will complete their preparation for the match with this afternoon's training session and Saturday morning's final training session. The match will coincide with match number 1,001 in the Yellow-blue's history, the 458th at home (361 wins and 96 defeats) and 575th in the regular season.
THE OPPONENTS Gas Sales Bluenergy Piacenza returns to Trento, six and a half months after the last game (game 5 of the Play Off Scudetto semifinal), with a clean sweep of the first three days of the championship behind them. The 3-0 victories against Padova, Catania (at home), and Milan confirmed the legitimate ambitions of a team that in the summer market only shored up the bench, adding a few more quality players (such as centre Ricci, setter Andringa, and setter Dias), and changed their technical guide (Andrea Anastasi arrived from Perugia), without changing their basic line-up. At the start of the regular season, the former Lucarelli (best scorer with 38 personal points) and the Italian Romanò immediately shone, but he will probably not be in the match due to an abdominal problem suffered in Biella during the Super Cup semi final lost in three sets to Civitanova. His place should be taken by the natural replacement Gironi, in a sextet that will once again have in the Cubans Simon and Leal (naturalised Brazilian) two offensive terminals of absolute level.
THE BACKGROUND Saturday will be the eighth official confrontation between Itas Trentino and Gas Sales Bluenergy of the calendar year 2023, a period in which the two clubs have also played each other in a Coppa Italia Final, a series of five Play Off semifinal matches and one match of the previous regular season. The duel has very deep roots, as the statistics tell it well: with 73 previous matches already on record, Piacenza is the third most frequently faced team in the history of Trentino Volleyball (ahead of only Civitanova with 95 and Modena with 82).The details speak of 40 regular season matches, 28 in the Play Off Scudetto (among the Finals of the 2008, 2009, 2013 editions, the 2023 semifinal and the 2005, 2021 and 2022 quarterfinals), 3 in the Coppa Italia (2023 final, 2014 semifinal and 2015 quarterfinal) and 2 in the CEV Cup (2017 quarterfinals). The balance is 49-24 in favour of the Club of via Trener, also thanks to the long streak imposed in the last few years; since Piacenza has returned to the highest national championship (2019/20 season) it has in fact won only six times in nineteen official matches. The most recent match was played last 25 April: 3-1 victory for Trento (partials 18-25, 25-20, 25-17, 25-19) in match 5 of the Play Off semifinals. Overall, the Yellow-blue club has won thirty-two of the thirty-nine previous official matches played with the Emilians inside their home walls.
THE REFEREES The match will be directed by the pair made up of Alessandro Cerra (of Bologna, in Serie A since 2014) and Marco Zavater (of Rome, in the highest category since 2008), respectively at their third and second matches of the season in SuperLega Credem Banca 2023/24. Cerra's last meeting with Trento corresponds to a match against Piacenza, played in Emilia on 16 April and won by the Yellow-blue 3-1; a match that he co-directed with Zavater, who also refereed Trento in game 2 of the Scudetto Final on 4 May, lost at the tie break in Civitanova Marche.   
RADIO, INTERNET AND TV The match will be a global media event, enjoying simultaneous live coverage on TV, radio and the Internet. On the small screen it will be broadcast by RAI Sport Hd, a channel present on the digital terrestrial platform at number 58.
Live coverage will be provided on Radio Dolomiti, Trentino Volleyball's media partner. The frequencies to listen to the regional network are available on the website www.radiodolomiti.com, where it will also be possible to follow the radio commentary in live streaming.
Also confirmed is live video streaming on the OTT platform 'Volleyball World TV'; the service is chargeable. More information on how to use it can be found at https://it.volleyballworld.com/volleyball-tv-it.
On TV a summary of the match will also be aired on Monday 13 November at 10 pm on RTTR - Trentino Volleyball's partner TV.
On the Internet, point-to-point updates will be provided by the Lega Pallavolo Serie A website (www.legavolley.it) and by www.trentinovolley.it and will also be active on the Gialloblù social networks (www.trentinovolley.it/instagram and www.trentinovolley.it/twitter).
TICKETING The match is included in both types of season tickets offered for this season by Trentino Volleyball (full and basic). You can still buy tickets for the single match at any time on the internet by clicking https://trentinovolley.vivaticket.it/it/event/itas-trentino-piacenza/223523. The coupons will also be available on Saturday at the ticket offices of the ilT quotidiano Arena, open from 7.30 p.m., the same time at which the arena entrances will also open.

Trentino Volley Srl
Press Office