Serie A1 TIM
Round 25
A derby will open this 25th round: Modena versus Piacenza will get the PalaPaninin gym on fire on Saturday at 4.30. All the other games will be played on Sunday: at 4.30 Macerata will try to bounce back from its Champions League elimination against Vibo Valentia. Verona, which beat the Italian Champs in the last round, travel to the Lazio region to meet Latina. Cuneo plays host to Loreto, while Monza is away against Pineto. At the Palaverde, it’s Treviso versus Taranto, the host will try to take revenge on the first meeting won 3-1 by Taranto. Following its Champions League qualification to the Playoffs 6, Trentino will be able to rest.
10a giornata di ritorno A1 TIM
Saturday 20 February at 4.30pm
Trenkwalder Modena – CoprAtlantide Piacenza – Live on Rai Sport Più
Live streaming on http://www.raisport.rai.it/dl/raisport/multimedia/diretta.html
(Pasquali-Sampaolo)
Sunday 21 February at 4.30pm
RPA-LuigiBacchi.it Perugia – Yoga Forlì – Live on Rai Sport Più
Live streaming on http://www.raisport.rai.it/dl/raisport/multimedia/diretta.html
(Barbero-Bartolini)
Sunday 21 February at 6pm
Andreoli Latina – Marmi Lanza Verona
(Sobrero-Castagna)
Lube Banca Marche Macerata – Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia
(La Micela-Cipolla)
Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo – Esse-ti Carilo Loreto
(Santi-Zucca)
Aran Cucine Abruzzo Pineto – Acqua Paradiso Monza
(Piersanti-Ippoliti)
Sisley Treviso – Prisma Taranto
(Saltalippi – Braico)
Itas Diatec Trentino – RESTED
League table
Itas Diatec Trentino 57, Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo 51, CoprAtlantide Piacenza 48, Sisley Treviso 46, Lube Banca Marche Macerata 45, Trenkwalder Modena 42, Acqua Paradiso Monza 40, Marmi Lanza Verona 38, RPA-LuigiBacchi.it Perugia 29, Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia 27, Prisma Taranto 25, Andreoli Latina 19, Yoga Forlì 17, Esse-ti Carilo Loreto 14, Aran Cucine Abruzzo Pineto 6.
1 more game: Itas Diatec Trentino, CoprAtlantide Piacenza, Marmi Lanza Verona, Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia, Andreoli Latina, Esse-ti Carilo Loreto
Trenkwalder Modena – CoprAtlantide Piacenza
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 19 (12-7 Piacenza)
Luis Diaz (Trenkwalder Modena): “This is a crucial game for us: we’re facing one of the strongest teams in the league, and we’re doing it after the victory over Trento, at a key stage of the season. We’re motivated, that always gives us a lot of energy to play at the PalaPanini. We obviously know how difficult this will be: in order to win, we’ll need another performance like the one against Trento, be that technically and mentally. We played well as a team against Trento, that is to say that against the top teams, at this crucial stage of the season, you can only win if every single one of us plays at a very high level and at the same time the team plays as a unit. That’s what we’ll try to do”.
Pietro Rinaldi (CoprAtlantide Piacenza): “Meeting my former teams has almost become a routine, even if Modena is special to me. I wanted to keep playing there: I respect their ideas and I still get on well with Da Re. Playing in the capital of volleyball always brings you great emotions, it will be nice to meet the fans and the many friends I have on Saturday. I can see that some people arrived at Modena and did a great job both technically and mentally to motivate a group that is playing at its best right now. They are probably playing the best volleyball of the league right now. Esko helps to create an exciting style and Dennis and co are taking great advantage of this. It will be a great game on Sunday, we want some points. Whoever is more daring and composed will win it”.
RPA-LuigiBacchi.it Perugia – Yoga Forlì
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 5 (3-2 Perugia)
Giacomo Sintini (RPA-LuigiBacchi.it Perugia): “Forli possesses good players, they play very well as a team, but they are inconsistent. Amongst its main strengths, Forli plays decent dig and has quality servers. As far as we’re concerned, we finally play well as a team, which we didn’t do for far too long in this league, and we have therefore all gained confidence. We just have to get on court and show our quality”.
Daniele De Pandis (Yoga Forlì): “We’ll be fighting on every ball in Perugia. This is the spirit we must have until the end of the season. We must give our best, not in every set but on every play. We’ve worked very well in the gym this week. We’ll go there to get some points, even if, if we look at the stats, it would have been better to meet Perugia a couple of weeks ago”.
Andreoli Latina – Marmi Lanza Verona
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 11 (8-3 Verona)
Giampaolo Medei (Andreoli Latina): “We’re facing three games out of which we must get points. The first one is Verona. At our best, we proved we could make it difficult for anyone. The aim is to take points and play our game after the break. We must focus more on ourselves than on our opponents. In order to stay up, we have to take all the opportunities that come our way, this has to be the attitude to adopt”.
Massimo Colaci (Marmi Lanza Verona): “The Latina game might be even more difficult than the one against Piacenza. This is a good team that fights to stay up, they’ll look for points in their gym. But we want to win it, we are very confident right now, we are in form physically and mentally, and our level of play has been really high in every fundamental against the Italian champs too. Our fans helped us a great deal to get the result against Piacenza, they managed to give us a boost in the difficult moments. Hopefully, they will come in numbers again in the next few home games against the tough teams that we’ll meet”.
Lube Banca Marche Macerata – Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 13 (9-4 Macerata)
Alessandro Paparoni (Lube Banca Marche Macerata): “The elimination from the Champions League is definitely hard to take in, but the best way to respond is without doubt to give our best to go all the way in the league, our last target left this season. Not only do we want to win against Vibo, a crucial game given that we can still finish at least in third place, but we also want to play a good volleyball”.
Jon Uriarte (Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia): “We’ll go there willing to have a good performance and obtain a result in line with the work we are doing. The players are working with a lot of energy. We’ll play to the maximum of out ability to finish the season as well as possible”.
Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo – Esse-ti Carilo Loreto
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 1 (Cuneo)
Alberto Giuliani (Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo): “This is the kind of game that is a lot trickier than it seems. We’ll have to be extremely focused. When you don’t play, you lose your rhythm and that’s why we’ll need to be concentrated on Sunday to start again where we had left off”.
Enrico Cester (Esse-ti Carilo Loreto): “Cuneo is a really great club, they have put together a top level team this season. In the first meeting at the PalaSerenelli, they managed to win intelligently and handed us our first severe loss of the season. Our mission is not to repeat that performance and play hard right till the last point. We have lost our last game against Perugia, which discouraged us a bit. That’s why we have to put our heads up and work hard to fight until the last game of the season to stay up, which we all really want to achieve”.
Aran Cucine Abruzzo Pineto – Acqua Paradiso Monza
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 1 (Monza won it)
Mauro Berruto (Acqua Paradiso Monza): “We obviously want to extend our positive streak as we’re playing against a team that is facing some real difficulties. Make no mistake, the respect for the players that are still on their team will push us to play our best volleyball, this is the only way to get closer to our dream, which is the playoffs. We’ll try to get the win and consolidate the quality of our game”.
Roberto Fant (Aran Cucine Abruzzo Pineto): “Yet another tough game against a better team than us technically. We must face this encounter head high all the same, and try to play as well as we did against Perugia and in the first set against Treviso. If we manage to keep our focus high during the whole game, we could at least offer a good show to our crowd, and enjoy playing. There are still a lot of games left, and things are definitely looking difficult for us but we have to work hard right until the end of the season in the most dignified possible way”.
Sisley Treviso – Prisma Taranto
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 14 (12-2 Treviso)
Samuele Papi (Sisley Treviso): “We are back at our best, physically too. The various injured players are back and the team is improving. We are training well, composed and with competitive spirit. The time has come to gain points before the final rush. This is why we’ll need composure and focus against Taranto, because we can’t afford ups and downs during the fame. Our opponent will come at the PalaVerde without any pressure and that will help them to take advantage of our mistakes. The more we avoid making mistakes and the easier it will be to impose our rhythm”.
Roberto Serniotti (Prisma Taranto): “We have had a good week at work, all the boys are fit to play. The victory over Vibo did us a lot of good, the team showed great determination and it was physically in good form despite the fact that it failed to seal the game at 3-0. On Sunday, we’ll meet one of the strongest teams of this league. At the beginning, people thought it would have been a transition year for Treviso but instead they have found the right mix of young and experienced players. The first meeting? Our team was different, our game has changed. I’ve seen some images and given also what I’ve been told, this was the best game of Taranto’s season. Given that loss, Treviso will surely be even more focused this time round”.
Serie A2 TIM
Round 23
In the 23rd round of the A2, all the teams will be on court except for Padova and Cavriago, which will fight it out at 8.30pm. There will be some interesting match ups with teams in need of points at the bottom of the league: Bassano Volley – Canadiens Mantova and Quasar Massa Versilia – Nava Gioia del Colle; The team from Tuscany saw Gheorge Cretu taking over Luca Cantagalli as head coach. At the other end of the table, Roma faces Bologna, second and third in the table. In fourth position, Sora entertains Isernia, while the fifth, just one point behind, Ravenna heads to Crema. Finally, the league leaders, Castellana Grotte, plays host to Città di Castello. Santa Croce is rested.
Sunday 21 February at 6pm
Canadiens Mantova – Bassano Volley
(Falzoni-Cassarino)
Quasar Massa Versilia – Nava Gioia del Colle
(Marchello-Guarneri)
Globo Banca Popolare del Frusinate Sora – Katay Geotec Isernia
(Zavater-Gentile)
M. Roma Volley – Zinella Bologna
(Cerquoni-Bartoloni)
Samgas Crema – Marcegaglia Ravenna
(Finocchiaro-Bernobich)
BCC-NEP Castellana Grotte – Città di Castello Pallavolo
(Contini-Bertolini)
Sunday 21 February at 8.30pm
Pallavolo Padova – Edilesse Cavriago – Live on Snai Sat from 8.20
(Puletti-Parlato)
Codyeco S.Croce – RESTED
League table
BCC-NEP Castellana Grotte 50, M. Roma Volley 46, Zinella Bologna 41, Globo Banca Popolare del Frusinate Sora 39, Marcegaglia Ravenna 38, Codyeco S.Croce 33, Samgas Crema 31, Città di Castello Pallavolo 28, Pallavolo Padova, Edilesse Cavriago 27, Katay Geotec Isernia 26, Quasar Massa Versilia 23, Bassano Volley 21, Nava Gioia del Colle 17, Canadiens Mantova 15.
1 Game in hand: BCC-NEP Castellana Grotte, Zinella Bologna, Globo Banca Popolare del Frusinate Sora, Marcegaglia Ravenna, Samgas Crema, Pallavolo Padova, Canadiens Mantova
