Serie A1
Round 6
The Grand champions Cup ended with Italy’s bronze medal behind Brazil and Russia, and now the Serie A1 can resume this Wednesday. The big game of the round will be Piacenza versus Cuneo.
Serie A1 round 6
Wednesday November 27 at 8.30pm
Altotevere Città di Castello – CMC Ravenna
(Bartolini-Longo)
Casa Modena – Diatec Trentino
(Sampaolo-Pasquali)
Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia – Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata
(Braico-Goitre)
Exprivia Molfetta – Sir Safety Perugia Live on Sportube.tv
(Puecher-Balboni)
Copra Elior Piacenza – Bre Lannutti Cuneo Live on RAI Sport 1
Live streaming on www.raisport.rai.it
(Padoan-Satanassi)
Postponed to Thursday December 5 at 8.30pm
Calzedonia Verona – Andreoli Latina
League report
Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata 15, Diatec Trentino 11, Copra Elior Piacenza 11, Calzedonia Verona 9, Casa Modena 8, Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia 7, Sir Safety Perugia 6, Exprivia Molfetta 6, Altotevere Città di Castello 5, Bre Lannutti Cuneo 4, Andreoli Latina 4, CMC Ravenna 4
Copra Elior Piacenza – Bre Lannutti Cuneo
Piacenza is in the hunt of Macerata, which stands four points ahead. Monti’s boys had beaten Perugia is four sets before the break. Third in the table, they hope to have Zlatanov back. As for Cuneo, they had a difficult start to the season with just one win. In the last round, they went close to force a tie-break against Trento.
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 40 (26-14 Cuneo)
Alessandro Fei (Copra Elior Piacenza): “Tomorrow’s game will be tough for two reasons: first because we’re back after two weeks out, and our focus will have involuntarily weakened. The second reason is that Cuneo has lost important game until now so they will be extremely up for it. They still have to find their game with the setter, but our weakness, as said before, could be the concentration. Cuneo has strong players like De Togni, Antonov and Maruotti, who used to play with us. If we want to stop them, we’ll have to pull together and be careful from start to finish”.
Gabriele Maruotti (Bre Lannutti Cuneo): “Piacenza is one of the strongest teams in the league so it’s obvious it will be a very difficult game. We have to go there knowing we have nothing to lose, we have to give it all and play our best volley. I think we have the means to do it, we’re working well, the group is creating its identity. This will be an important test to understand if we have made a qualitative leap. Even if we’re coming off two losses we must not lose our motivation and fighting spirit. I remain positive because there’s a good atmosphere. I am happy to be back in Piacenza, but I hope to play well and I am sure we’ll play our best volleyball and try to get a result”.
Altotevere Città di Castello – CMC Ravenna
Target: going up the ranks: only one point separate Città di Castello, 9th, from Ravenna, 12th. But the table is very tight so a victory can get you right back up in a good position. Radici’s men have taken all their points at home, while Ravenna has only won once so far.
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 6 (5-1 Ravenna)
Andrea Radici (coach Altotevere San Giustino): “We can’t wait to get back on court after the long break, I could see in the eyes of the boys all their determination. Two International players will join us at the last minute so we’ll have to do a good job of finding our rhythm quickly against Ravenna, a team that has a lot of quality which is improving its game a lot: hopefully we’ll have a good performance”.
Marco Bonitta (coach CMC Ravenna): “We’re going to san Giustino to try to obtain our first away win of the season after a good training week. But we’re aware that it will not be easy by any means. Città di Castello is a well-balanced team with fighting spirit, they have already registered some excellent results”.
Casa Modena – Diatec Trentino
The derby of the highway A22. Modena welcomed this week Andrea Sartoretti as new sport director. If Modena was to win they could catch up their opponent of the day, Trento, which stands in second place after their win over Latina.
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 42 (26-16 Trento)
Angelo Lorenzetti (coach Casa Modena): “Trento has made a lot of changes compared to last season, it’s obvious, but us coach are looking at the numbers, very similar to last year. This means they maintained their style of play, their mentality and a very high level in the way they work. I am happy with the way my team is working in the gym. A win would be a breakthrough for us, we have to stay as close as possible in each set, and maybe try to get a little spurt here and there”.
Tsvetan Sokolov (Diatec Trentino): “Modena is a great team, among the favorites of the league, taking on them in their PalaPanini arena is nothing easy but I am not frightened because I think we’re playing rather well and we have what it takes to do fine against any opponent. We’ll have to limit our mistakes and be more convincing than against Latina last Saturday, but I am sure I am sure our real value goes beyond what we’ve seen against Latina. This will be the perfect chance for us to prove that by winning in Modena”.
Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia – Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata
The league leader travels to Vibo Valentia as the Internationals Baranowicz, Kovar and Zaytsev will join the group at the last minute. They will try to stay unbeaten as they’ve lost just one set against Trento so far. As for Vibo, they obtained a point in Modena in the last round while they won twice at home against Verona and Latina.
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 21 (15-6 Macerata)
Gianlorenzo Blengini (coach Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia): “We’re meeting one of the strongest teams in the league, but we’re extremely motivated, we really want to do well in front of our amazing fans. There’s a lot of aspects that make this game complicated but we’ll try to make the most of any chance that might come our way”.
Marko Podrascanin (Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata): “The league resumes with a difficult trip to Vibo, which has always been a tough place to go to, for anyone. But our goal will be to start where we had left off. The break was useful to rest and train with regularity, working on certain technical and tactical details. I am confident, our three internationals who were in Japan with Italy looked in great shape. We have a very important period ahead of us with the league and Champions League. Starting with a win in Vibo would be great”.
Exprivia Molfetta – Sir Safety Perugia
The PalaPoli arena is turning into a real fortress in this start of season: two wins out of two against Città di Castello and Cuneo so fare. Perugia will try to improve on their seventh position. Both teams are tied with 6 points after respective defeats against Latina and Piacenza.
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 2 (1 each)
Francesco De Marchi (Exprivia Molfetta): “We took advantage of the break to get focused on training and work on fundamental aspects: doing the best to stay close during games and some individual aspects. We’re up against Perugia another team that made a lot of changes during the summer, they brought in some top players and a talent like Vujevic. They have the same amount of points as us, which they mostly got on the road. We’ll do our best to play at 101% and keep our home winning streak going”.
Dore Della Lunga (Sir Safety Perugia): “This won’t be an easy game at all. Excellent teams have already lost there but if we want to be in the top part of the table, we have to win it. They have a lot of young promising Italian players, they get a big boost from their supporters at home, but they find it harder away. We’ll have to focus on doing the important things well, and avoid the kind of lapses that cost us a few points in the first five rounds”.
European cups
2014 Challenge Cup: second round return leg for Latina
2014 Challenge Cup
Latina’s league game against Verona has been postponed due to its Challenge Cup second round second leg game against Chemes Humenne in Slovakia. Sasa Starovic will make his debut as the team will try to qualify to the 16th of finals, building on the 3-0 victory of the first leg. Two sets will be enough to go through.
2014 Challenge Cup
2nd Round return leg
Wednesday November 27 at 6pm
Chemes Humenne (SVK) – Andreoli Latina (ITA)
(Marev-Parshyn)
