Trento, 14 November 2023

SuperLega, on Wednesday back on the court in Milan for round 5

The fifth round of the SuperLega Credem Banca 2023/24 will take place on Wednesday 15th November. Itas Trentino will be away, visiting Allianz Milano; at the Allianz Cloud (formerly PalaLido) kick-off scheduled for 20:30. Live broadcast on Radio Dolomiti and live streaming on the OTT platform Volleyball World Tv.
HERE ITAS TRENTINO After securing all the points available in Saturday night's home match against Piacenza, the Italian champions face another important commitment in the league, the first midweek of the season, with the aim of confirming their position at the top of the standings and remaining unbeaten.
"Wednesday's game in Milan marks the start of an important cycle for us, which will see us play a game every three weeks until the beginning of December.
Wednesday's game in Milan marks the start of an important cycle for us, which will see us play a game every three days between the league and the Champions League until the beginning of December, and for that reason we have to face it and live it with the right mentality in every single situation," said coach Fabio Soli at the match's pre-match press conference - . The field shows our growth, but we are aware that we still have room for improvement, both as individuals and as a team. Without looking too far ahead, the best thing to do is to seize the opportunities that present themselves on a daily basis, and I believe that the game against Allianz is an important opportunity to look for confirmation of the progress we have made and, at the same time, to look for new areas of development in our game, against an opponent who has certainly raised his level in recent days, as demonstrated by the victory over a top team like Civitanova on Sunday. Once again, we will have to be patient with our current limitations, but also demanding and dynamic, able to adapt to the situations that arise during the game. Milan have a competitive squad and a solid system: it will be an exciting and challenging test".
The team will arrive in Milan in the early evening, after an afternoon training session at the T-Quotidiano Arena and the subsequent coach transfer to Lombardy with all fourteen members of the squad. This will be the 544th official away match in the history of Trentino men's volleyball, the sixth of the season, and the Gialloblù will be in search of their 696th win in the 1,002 matches played so far.
THE OPPONENTS Allianz Milano await the visit of Itas Trentino, who have already been challenged twice in the 2023 calendar year and are fresh from their first win of the 2023/24 regular season. Last weekend, Roberto Piazza's side defeated Civitanova 3-0 at the Allianz Cloud, where Wednesday's game will be played, to move up the table. After three initial setbacks (against Modena, Piacenza and Cisterna), the Lombard side have found their stride and are confirming their status as the tournament's potential surprise package, a role they played to perfection in the last Scudetto play-offs, eliminating Perugia in the quarter-finals and securing a historic semi-final and CEV Cup berth. The return of first-choice coach Porro (who missed the first few matches due to a physical problem) was crucial in giving security to a line-up that included the new faces of opposite spiker Dirlic (who missed the last few matches due to injury and was replaced by Belgian Reggers) and setter Kaziyski. Matey, the Yellow-blue legend with whom he played 433 official matches and scored 6,066 personal points, in addition to winning seventeen titles, returned to the hitter spiker’s role and is inevitably the most eagerly awaited player of the evening, playing another game as a former player, as he did when he wore the Verona shirt and, before that, that of Al-Rayan during the 2014 Club World Championship. Only Ishikawa (who scored 50 times in the first four days) has put the ball on the ground more than him in this league start (30).
BACKGROUND The total number of official matches between Trentino Volley and Powervolley Milano is twenty-two, with nineteen victories for the Gialloblù, who were last defeated on 26 November 2022 at home (1-3), before obtaining two tie-break victories: on 19 February 2023 in Milan and six days later in Rome in the Italian Cup semi final. The Meneghini in their history have only won once in front of their home crowd against Trento (3 February 2021, 3-0), winning just three sets in the remaining eight matches. Wednesday's match will be played for the sixth time at Milan's PalaLido (now Allianz Cloud); the other home matches had previously been played at Busto Arsizio's PalaYamamay (March 3rd 2019, February 5th 2017 and December 30th 2017), at Assago's Forum ( February 8th 2015) and at Castellanza's PalaBorsani ( December 5th 2015).
THE REFEREES The match will be directed by the Venetian pair composed of Massimo Florian (from Altivole - Treviso, in Serie A since 2007) and Massimiliano Giardini (from Verona, on the roster since 2014), curiously enough the same one who directed the last previous match in Milan between the two teams ( February 19th 2023). For Florian, this is the third match of the season in SuperLega; the last meeting with the Yellow-blue corresponds to the evening of the fifth Scudetto (3-0 over Civitanova in game 5 of the Final - May 17th). For Giardini, it will be the second match of the 2023/24 regular season; the most recent one was against Trento on 19 February in Milan.
RADIO, INTERNET AND TV The match will be reported live by Radio Dolomiti, media partner of Trentino Volleyball. 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.
Also confirmed is the live video streaming on the OTT platform "Volleyball Tv"; the service is pay-per-view. More information on how to use it can be found at https://it.volleyballworld.com/volleyball-tv-it.
On television a summary will be aired on Friday  November 17th at 4.30 pm on RTTR - Trentino Volleyball's media partner.
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/facebook, www.trentinovolley.it/instagram and www.trentinovolley.it/twitter).

Trentino Volley Srl
Press Office