Trento, 23 December 2024

SuperLega in action on boxing day to close the third return round

As per tradition, SuperLega does not stop during the Christmas holidays, and on Boxing Day it offers the third round of the 2024/25 regular season return round, the fourteenth overall. On this occasion, Itas Trentino will be playing at the ilT quotidiano Arena in Trento, hosting Allianz Milano for the 29th edition of the so-called insurance derby. The match will start at 6 PM on December 26th; live coverage on RAI Sport, Radio Dolomiti, and live streaming on the OTT VBTV platform.
HERE ITAS TRENTINO Returning at dawn on Monday from Taranto, the European Champions and World Vice Champions will play in front of their home crowd for the first time in a month (the last home game was on November 27th, a 3-0 win over Padova) to continue their chase of leaders Perugia, who are five points ahead having played one more game.
"We are happy to finally play in front of our home crowd, especially for an important game like Thursday's," said coach Fabio Soli in presenting the event. "Milano is coming off five wins in their last seven league matches and has a very strong line-up of attackers and servers, as well as being very well organized in blocking and defense. On our part, it's true that we just returned to Trento a few hours ago, but I am convinced that working again in our arena, and receiving the support and warmth of our fans, will be fundamental for this commitment. The approach to the match and the level of attention to developing effective play will be the keys to the match."
Itas Trentino will start preparing for the match on Tuesday afternoon, after having a day and a half of rest following the triple consecutive away games in Uberlandia-Cagliari-Taranto. They will also train on Christmas afternoon, but will still be without Jan Kozamernik. Romanian Bartha, who has now fully recovered from the muscle injury that forced him to miss much of the first round, will continue in his place in the middle.
FOURTEENTH MATCH IN YELLOW-BLUE HISTORY ON BOXING DAY Playing on the day immediately after Christmas has become a pleasant tradition for Trentino Volley over the years. In twenty-four previous seasons of activity, they have played on Boxing Day thirteen times; the record of matches played on this date sees the yellow-blues winning ten times: 3-1 against Verona in 2005 and 2022, 3-0 against Treviso in 2010, 3-1 in Belluno in 2011, 3-1 against Perugia in 2012, 3-0 in Monza in 2014, 3-1 against Padova in 2016, 3-1 against Monza in 2017, 3-1 in Siena in 2018, and 3-0 in Padova in 2023. The only three away losses were: 1-3 in Modena in 2006, 1-3 in Treviso in 2007, 2-3 in Verona in 2021. On one occasion, Trento also played on December 25th: a home victory 3-1 against Ravenna on Christmas 2019. On this occasion, Trentino Volley will play their 1,068th official match ever and will be looking for their 744th win, the 386th at home, and the 430th in the regular season.
THE OPPONENTS After facing Civitanova on Sunday evening at the Eurosuole Forum, Allianz Milano takes on another team recently back from the Club World Championship 2024, aiming to turn the page after the defeat suffered just a few hours earlier in the Marche region. The loss on Cucine Lube's court, in just three sets, prevented the Milanese team from keeping up with Verona, after having climbed the rankings in recent rounds with an impressive streak of victories (five wins in six matches), reaching just three points from fourth place. Among the absolute protagonists of the first thirteen regular season games and the good performance so far in the Champions League (second place in Pool B behind the Polish team Zawiercie) are the Belgian opposite Reggers, the second top scorer of the league with an average of 18.2 points per game, the setter Porro (also effective in serving), and the eternal Matey Kaziyski (yellow-blue legend with whom he has played 433 official matches, scoring 6,066 personal points and winning seventeen titles). Alongside the French player Louati, he forms a well-matched pair of hitters, backed up by Gardini and the Japanese Otsuka when needed.
THE BACKGROUND The total number of official matches between Trentino Volleyball and Powervolley Milano amounts on twenty-eight meetings, with twenty-three victories for the gialloblù, who have won six of the last ten matches played, including the one in the first half of the season: in four sets, on 12th October 2024, a 1-3 victory (29-31, 27-29, 25-22, 19-25) with Michieletto as best scorer (23 points).The Meneghini have won only three times in their history in ten previous matches played in Trento: on 15th October 2017 (2-3), on 26th November 2022 (1-3) and most recently (on 24th April 2024 for 0-3 in match three of the Play Off Final).
THE REFEREES The match will be refereed by Dominga Lot (from Santa Lucia di Piave - Venice, tenured referee since 2010 and international since 2017) and Umberto Zanussi (tenured referee since 2006) at their 17th SuperLega match refereed together in their careers. For Lot (in his eighth seasonal match in the regular season), the last previous match with Trento was against Milan (on 27th April, a 3-1 home victory for the Lombards). Zanussi (in his eighth 2024/25 direction too) has most recently directed the Gialloblù (on 17th November, a victory in Piacenza in four sets) and refereed the Trento-Milan match twice, with one victory on each side.
TV, RADIO AND INTERNET The match will be a global media event, live streaming on TV, radio and internet. On television it will be broadcast by RAI Sport, channel number 58 available on the digital terrestrial platform.The match will be reported live by Radio Dolomiti, Trentino Volleyball’s media partner. Frequencies to listen to the regional network are available on the website www.radiodolomiti.com, where it is also possible to follow the radio news live also in streaming. Also confirmed is live video streaming on OTT “Volleyball World Tv” platform; there is a fee for the service. For more information about its use see the website https://it.volleyballworld.com/volleyball-tv-it. A summary of the match will be broadcast on Friday, December 27th at 4:45 p.m., on RTTR channel, Trentino Volleyball media partner. Moreover, detailed updates will be managed by the website of the Volleyball League Serie A (www.legavolley.it) and www.trentinovolley.it itself, and always active on gialloblù social networks (www.trentinovolley.it/facebook, www.trentinovolley.it/instagram and www.trentinovolley.it/twitter).
TICKET OFFICE The match is included in the 2024/25 season ticket. Tickets for the single match can be purchased at any time on the internet by clicking https://trentinovolley.vivaticket.it/it/event/itas-trentino-milano/255205. Tickets will also be available on Sunday afternoon at the ticket office of the ilT quotidiano Arena, active from 5 pm, at the same time as the entrances to the arena will also be opened.

Trentino Volley Srl
Press Office