Trento, 26 October 2024

SuperLega, on Sunday at ilT quotidiano Arena the big match of the Fifth round

The fifth round of the SuperLega Credem Banca 2024/25 regular season takes place this weekend. The Itas Trentino men's team will once again play in front of their home crowd, hosting Sir Susa Vim Perugia on Sunday, October 27, at the ilT quotidiano Arena: European Champions vs. World and Italian Champions. Starting time is scheduled for 6 PM, with live coverage on RAI Sport, Radio Dolomiti, and live streaming (paid) on the OTT platform VBTV.
HERE ITAS TRENTINO After recording the best start ever in the first four league games (12 points out of 12 available, an unprecedented feat in the club’s twenty-four-year history), the yellow-blue team returns to face their fans for the most challenging match of the first half of the season. The clash with Perugia, the only team to have defeated them so far this season, is highly anticipated and important for the standings, given that the two teams are separated by only one point, but not only for that reason, as explained by coach Fabio Soli.
"Without a doubt, Perugia is currently, for the quality of individual players and the depth of their squad, the benchmark team in Italian and international men's volleyball," he emphasized during the presentation. "For us, it will be a very stimulating challenge because those in our profession always aspire to live through events like this and want to compete against the strongest teams to understand how far our growth process has come. We want to play this match to the best of our current abilities; it will be very intense, and I believe that performance in serving and receiving will be crucial. From this point of view, Sir Susa Vim puts great pressure during break points, as they have six top-level service rotations. To play this match point by point, it will be necessary to consistently maintain a high quality of play."
The Trentino coach will have to do without Romanian middle blocker Bela Bartha, who will be sidelined for a long time due to an abdominal injury sustained ten days ago. In his place, the promising 2007-born Leonardo Sandu, usually playing for UniTrento Volley in Serie B, will once again be listed on the roster. The team will complete their preparation for the match with training sessions this afternoon and the final practice on Sunday morning. The match will be the 1,051st in the history of the yellow-blue men's team, the 483rd home game (with a record of 381 wins and 101 losses), the 598th in the regular season, and the 38th of the current calendar year.
THE OPPONENTS Sir Susa Vim Perugia comes to Trento trailing by just one point in the standings compared to the home team (due to the tie-break match played in Padua in the second round), but with a perfect and enviable track record: to date, they are the only undefeated team this season (six wins in as many matches played between the league and the Supercup). The success in the Final Four in Florence allowed the Umbrian club to win their fifth consecutive trophy, crowning an exceptional period from a trophy standpoint, with the conquest in just under twelve months of the Club World Championship, the Scudetto, the Italian Cup, and two Supercups. The statistics from the start of this league season certify the value of the Block Devils, the most effective in blocking (43 points in 4 games, almost three blocks per set) and second in the number of aces (30, two per set). Despite this, the team led by Angelo Lorenzetti (in his second appearance as a former coach in Trento, where he collected 337 appearances on the yellow-blue bench between 2016 and 2023) has changed its lineup compared to last season, drawing from Milan's roster, from which central blocker Loser and outside hitter Ishikawa, familiar faces to Trentino fans from the end of the previous season, have arrived. The rest of the starting lineup, however, has remained unchanged and includes the presence of important former players such as setter Simone Giannelli (315 official matches between 2014 and 2021 and 131 times captain) and libero Massimo Colaci (345 matches between 2010 and 2017). Central blockers Sebastian Solé (189 matches between 2013 and 2017) and Davide Candellaro (81 matches between 2018 and 2020) are also available. All of them have won at least two titles with Trentino Volley.
THE BACKGROUNThe two clubs have faced each other fifty-five times in official matches across five different competitions (league, Coppa Italia, Supercoppa, Champions League, and Club World Cup); the record favors the Block Devils at 31-24, with thirteen wins in the last sixteen encounters. They also won both matches in 2024: 3-1 in Umbria on February 25 and 3-2 in Florence on September 22 during the Supercoppa final, with set scores of 25-18, 19-25, 15-25, 25-17, 15-9. Trentino Volley has maintained home advantage in sixteen of twenty-three home games; Perugia has won four-set matches fifteen times. The player with the most appearances is Simone Giannelli, with a total of 50 matches. The last match at via Fersina ended in a home victory on December 17, 2023, marking the last win for the yellow-blues in this rivalry.
THE REFEREES The match will be officiated by Armando Simbari from Milan (in Serie A since 2007 and international since 2016) and Carlo Goitre from Turin (in the role since 2008 and international since 2016), marking their fourteenth joint SuperLega match in their careers. Both referees have previous experience with the Trento-Perugia matchup: Simbari has officiated two matches (3-1 for the yellow-blues in Umbria on January 3, 2021, and a 3-1 home win at PalaBarton on November 7 of the same year), while Goitre has one (an away victory for Sir at 1-3 on November 20, 2019).
TV, RADIO AND INTERNET The match will be a global media event, broadcast live on TV, radio, and the internet. It will be aired on RAI Sport, available on digital terrestrial channel 58. Live commentary will be provided by Radio Dolomiti, the media partner of Trentino  Volley; listeners can find frequencies on www.radiodolomiti.com, where live streaming is also available. Video streaming will be confirmed on the OTT platform "Volleyball World Tv"; this service is subscription-based. For more information, visit https://it.volleyballworld.com/volleyball-tv-it.
A match summary will also air on Monday, October 28, at 21:50 on RTTR, the TV partner of Trentino Volley. Online updates will be managed by the Lega Pallavolo Serie A website (www.legavolley.it) and www.trentinovolley.it, with ongoing updates on the yellow-blue social networks (www.trentinovolley.it/instagram and www.trentinovolley.it/twitter).
SOLD OUT The match is included in the 2024/25 season subscription. ilT quotidiano Arena reported a "sold out" status as early as Friday, with 4,000 spectators in attendance. On Sunday, the ticket office in via Fersina will open at 17:00 only for credential pickups; entrances will open at the same time.

Trentino Volley Srl
Press Office