Trento, 02 January 2024

Coppa Italia, on Wednesday at ilT Quotidiano Arena, the quarterfinal

The 2024 calendar year starts immediately with a knockout match for Itas Trentino men's team. On Wednesday, January 3, three of the four quarterfinals of the 46th Del Monte® Coppa Italia edition will be played. The Italian champions will make their seasonal debut in the competition at the ilT quotidiano Arena, facing Rana Verona: the winner advances to the Final Four, scheduled for January 27-28 in Bologna. Kick-off is scheduled for 8:30 PM: live on RAI Sport HD, Radio Dolomiti, and streaming live on the OTT platform Volleyball World Tv.
ITAS TRENTINO The yellow-blue team comes to the encounter as the undisputed leader in the standings, winter champions (thus entering the competition as the number 1 seed), and undefeated at home this season. However, these accomplishments alone do not guarantee access to the Final Four, as coach Fabio Soli explains.
"It's a knockout game, against a strong opponent who comes to this match after a series of positive results that will have surely strengthened their confidence - said Trentino Volley coach -. We have the opportunity to play the match at home, backed up by our fans, who have made their support felt strongly in previous home games. We know that, in order to qualify, an intense and focused performance in every single set will be necessary. Verona is in great form, significantly different from the opponent we faced in early November, but I am convinced that we have also improved since then. We want to be ready for a high-level challenge."
Itas Trentino will have all fourteen players available for the match, completing the preparation with training sessions on Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning at the ilT quotidiano Arena. Team captain Marko Podrascanin, who has participated in the most editions of the Coppa Italia, will make his fifteenth appearance in the top national competition, with three previous victories (2009 with Lube, 2018 and 2019 with Perugia). The only rookie is setter Alessandro Acquarone. The player with the most appearances in Coppa Italia for Trentino is Gabriele Nelli (10).
TRENTINO VOLLEY'S HISTORY IN COPPA ITALIA Wednesday's game will mark Trentino Volley's 22nd participation in the quarterfinals of the Coppa Italia, in twenty-four seasons of activity. The team has missed the final phase of the competition only in the debut season in A1 (2000/01, eliminated in the preliminary quarterfinals by Cuneo) and in the last season under Lattari's management (2006/07). In sixteen occasions, the team has surpassed the quarterfinals, reaching the Final Four, with the latest qualification by defeating Modena 3-1 on December 28, 2022. Trentino Volley has won the competition three times: January 31, 2010, in Montecatini Terme with a 3-1 victory over Cuneo in the final, February 19, 2012, with a 3-2 comeback against Lube at the PalaLottomatica in Rome, and December 30, 2012, with a 3-1 win over Lube at the Forum in Assago. The team has played a total of nine finals, including losses to Cuneo (2010/11), Modena (2014/15 and 2015/16), Civitanova (2016/17), Perugia (2021/22), and Piacenza (2022/23). In five other participations, elimination came in the quarterfinals: in 2002/03 by Macerata, in 2003/04 by Cuneo, in 2004/05, in 2007/08, and in 2008/09, all by Treviso. The overall record in the competition is 49 games: 28 wins and 21 losses (the last one in the semifinals in Rome against Milan on February 25, 2022).
THE OPPONENTS Rana Verona, coming off four consecutive wins in the SuperLega, aims to upset the home advantage and qualify for the semifinals; it has achieved this only once (2005) in nine participations. The gradual inclusion of some players who had little playing time in the early months of the season, like former Trento’s middle blocker Zingel, opposite Keita, and spiker Dzavoronok (returning to Trento for the first time after winning the championship), has allowed Stoytchev's team to become more competitive. They secured two crucial tie-break victories against teams ahead of them in the standings (Milan and Civitanova) and two 3-1 wins against teams trailing (Cisterna and Taranto). Verona relies heavily on the physicality of certain players (such as Mozic and Amin, with 350 points combined) and on the blocking skills (second in the league with 122 points in twelve matches) to challenge opponents. Eight of the seventeen points in the standings have been earned on the road.
FORMAT OF DEL MONTE® COPPA ITALIA 2024 The quarterfinals are played on January 3 and 4, with direct elimination matches determined by the standings from the first half of the SuperLega Credem Banca regular season. The Perugia-Modena match is the only one not played on Wednesday, scheduled for the next day at 8:30 PM instead; the other matches include Monza-Civitanova (8 PM), Trento-Verona, and Piacenza-Milano (8:30 PM). The Final Four is scheduled for the weekend of January 27-28 at the Unipol Arena in Bologna, with the semifinals on Saturday, January 27 (the winner of the quarterfinal at the ilT quotidiano Arena will face the winner of Mint-Lube), and the final on Sunday, January 28, at 3:45 PM.
PREVIOUS MATCHES Trentino Volley and Verona Volley face each other in Coppa Italia for the second time in their history. The sole previous encounter was in the 2019 edition, with Itas Trentino winning 3-0 (25-20, 25-12, 25-21) in the quarterfinals on January 23. In total, they have played forty-five official matches, with a record of 32 wins and 13 losses for the yellow-blue club. Trentino has won nineteen of the twenty-four total matches played at home, including the most recent one (3-0 on December 26, 2022). They also won in three sets in the only meeting of this season, played in Veneto on November 5, with scores of 18-25, 17-25, 15-25, and Sbertoli (5 aces) as MVP.
REFEREES The match will be officiated by the duo Mauro Goitre (from Turin, in Serie A since 2008 and international since 2016) and Rocco Brancati (from Città di Castello - Perugia, active since 2015). Both referees are in their seventh assignment of the season for SuperLega teams. Goitre last officiated a Trentino Volley match eight days ago (3-0 in Padova on December 26), while Brancati's most recent match was Trentino Volley's last defeat on December 10 in Modena (1-3).
TV, RADIO, AND INTERNET The match will be a global media event, with live coverage on TV, radio, and the internet. RAI Sport HD, channel 58 on the digital terrestrial, will broadcast the match on television. Radio Dolomiti, Trentino Volley's media partner, will provide live commentary, with frequencies available on the website www.radiodolomiti.com, where the radio broadcast can also be streamed live.
The match will also be streamed live on the OTT platform "Volleyball World Tv", which is a paid service. For more information on accessing the service, visit https://it.volleyballworld.com/volleyball-tv-it.
A summary will be broadcast on television on Friday, January 5, at 4:30 PM, on RTTR - Trentino Volley's media partner.
Real-time updates will be provided on the websites of Lega Pallavolo Serie A (www.legavolley.it) and www.trentinovolley.it. Updates will also be available on Trentino Volley's social media channels (www.trentinovolley.it/facebook, www.trentinovolley.it/instagram and www.trentinovolley.it/twitter).
TICKETS The match is included only in the Full subscription package, not in the Standard one. However, Standard subscribers had the right of pre-emption until 12 pm on January 2. Tickets for the individual match can be purchased at any time on https://trentinovolley.vivaticket.it/it/event/quarti-del-monte-coppa-italia-itas-trentino-vs-verona/227510. Tickets will also be available on Wednesday evening at the ilT quotidiano Arena ticket counters, which open at 7:30 PM, the same time the arena will open.

Trentino Volley Srl
Press Office