Trento, 26 April 2024

Play Off, on Saturday (8.30 pm) in Milan game 4 of the Bronze Medal Final

On Saturday, April 27th at the Allianz Cloud (formerly PalaLido) in Milan, Game 4 of the Final for the 3rd place Play Off Scudetto Credem Banca 2024 will be played. For the second time in the series, Itas Trentino will be on the scene in Lombardy, hunting for the victory that can make them even the score and at the same time cancel the first (of two) opportunities for Allianz Milano to win the bronze medal and the consequent qualification to the 2025 CEV Champions League. Kick-off scheduled for 8.30 pm, with live broadcast on Radio Dolomiti and live streaming on the OTT Volleyball World Tv platform.
HERE ITAS TRENTINO The Italian Champions are preparing to experience the last away match of the Italian championship with the strict need to win in order not to close the series already on this occasion and say goodbye to the top continental competition for at least one year. In the event of defeat, the 2024/25 Gialloblù Europe will in fact be tied with the CEV Cup.
"We want to bring the series back to the T quotidiano Arena on Tuesday for Game 5, and we want to do it for us and for our fans, - coach Fabio Soli emphasised during the presentation - . We need to step into the current situation with humility and determination, which sees us struggling to give continuity to our volleyball. We are working with conviction to improve and we are close to recovering those few balls that can decide a set and the match. The trend is certainly in Milan's favour, but I am convinced that this can be reversed again because the history of best-of-five series tells us that very often individual sets have been decided by the smallest of details. It is up to us to succeed in doing them better than our opponents, finding a practical and effective game. A reasonably difficult challenge awaits us; however, each of us has the intention of making that extra contribution that could be decisive: it's time to put it on the court".
The yellow-blue coach will still not be able to make full-time use of setter Daniele Lavia (who will, however, take part in the away match and should be on the scoresheet), but he will have all the other fourteen players in the squad available, who trained regularly earlier this afternoon before setting off for Milan. It will be match number 1,043 in the history of Trentino Volleyball, the 47th match of the season (a record of 34 wins and 12 defeats), the 563rd ever away match, where only 216 of them have been defeated.
THE OPPONENTS Allianz Milano is one win away from its first participation in the CEV Champions League. Thanks to Wednesday night's three-set win in Trento, the team coached by Roberto Piazza will in fact have two opportunities to gain a pass for the continental club's top event; the first on Saturday night in front of their home crowd. During the course of this week, the Milanese coach has also recovered former player Kaziyski (on court for brief stretches of the match), but he has found in his natural substitute Mergarejo Hernandez and in his team-mate Ishikawa (mvp of match 3) the elements capable of tipping the scales towards the Milanese side after the first two very close and uncertain matches.
BACKGROUND The total tally of official matches between Trentino Volley and Powervolley Milano speaks of twenty-seven meetings, with twenty-two victories for the yellow-blue and five for the Lombardi. The Meneghini in their history have only won twice in front of their own public against Trento (on 3 February 2021 by 3-0 and on 20 April), winning in the remaining ten matches in just five sets. Saturday's match will be played for the eighth time at Milan's PalaLido (now Allianz Cloud); the other home matches had previously been played at Busto Arsizio's PalaYamamay (3 March 2019, 5 February 2017 and 30 December 2017), at Assago's Forum (8 February 2015) and at Castellanza's PalaBorsani (5 December 2015).
THE SERIES Allianz Milano ahead 2-1 in the Credem Banca 2024 Scudetto Play Off Final 3rd place series, which is played at the best of five games, by virtue of the 3-2 victory on 17 April at the ilT quotidiano Arena with scores of 23-25, 25-18, 23-25, 25-19 and 15-11 in favour of Itas Trentino and then the two victories obtained by the Lombardy team: 2-3 at home on 20 April (24-26, 25-17, 16-25, 27-25, 20-22) and 3-0 on 24 April in Trento (22-25, 23-25, 14-25). On Saturday match 4, which could be the last of the confrontation only in the event of another victory for the Lombardy team; should the defending Italian Champions win the match, match 5 will also be necessary, which will be played again at the ilT quotidiano Arena on Tuesday 30 April at 8.30 p.m. and which will in any case award qualification for the 2025 CEV Champions League.
THE REFEREES The match will be directed by Umberto Zanussi (from Treviso, in Serie A since 2006) and Dominga Lot (from Santa Lucia di Piave - Venice, on the roster since 2010 and international since 2017), both in their 21st match of the season against SuperLega teams. For Zanussi, the last meeting with Trentino Volley was on 31 March in game 1 of the Play Off Semifinal, won by Monza in three sets, while Lot refereed Trento in the penultimate trip to Lombardy (11 April, 1-3 defeat in Monza).
RADIO, INTERNET AND TV Race 4 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.
The service (with fee) on the OTT platform ‘VBTV’ is also confirmed. 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 Monday 29 April 2024 at 21.30, on RTTR - Trentino Volley'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 always 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