Press conference to present cup final four
A press conference to present the Italian Cup Final Four to take place in Bologna on March 8-9 will take place on February 18 at noon in Bologna’s Maggiore square.
Del Monte Italian Cup Serie A1 – Final Four
PalaDozza – Bologna
Saturday March 8 at 4pm
1st semi-final
Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata – Sir Safety Perugia Live on Rai Sport 1
Saturday March 8 at 6.30pm
2nd semi-final
Copra Elior Piacenza – Diatec Trentino live on Rai Sport 1
Sunday March 9 at 5.30pm
Final Live on Rai Sport 1
Serie A1
Round 17
The highlight of the weekend comes from Cuneo which will play host to Piacenza. Trento versus Modena is another one that should not be missed.
Serie A1 round 17
Domenica 16 febbraio 2014, ore 17.30Sunday February 16 at 5.30pm
Bre Lannutti Cuneo – Copra Elior Piacenza Live on RAI Sport 1
Live streaming on www.raisport.rai.it
(Tanasi-Genna)
Sunday February 16 at 6pm
CMC Ravenna – Altotevere Città di Castello
(Simbari-Zucca)
Diatec Trentino – Casa Modena Diretta Sportube.tv
(Puecher-Rapisarda)
Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata – Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia
(Cesare-Pasquali)
Andreoli Latina – Calzedonia Verona
(Piersanti-Santi)
Sir Safety Perugia – Exprivia Molfetta
(Padoan-Cappello)
League table
Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata 41, Copra Elior Piacenza 37*, Diatec Trentino 31, Sir Safety Perugia 30, Bre Lannutti Cuneo 24, Altotevere Città di Castello 22, Calzedonia Verona 22, Casa Modena 19, Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia 18, CMC Ravenna 14*, Andreoli Latina 14, Exprivia Molfetta 13.
1 game in hand: Copra Elior Piacenza, CMC Ravenna
Bre Lannutti Cuneo – Copra Elior Piacenza
Out of the champions League, Piacenza will focus on the league and the Italian Cup. Cuneo, which had a poor first half of season (out of the Cev Cup and knocked out of the cup in the quarters), seems to have found its rhythm. They gathered four consecutive wins and 11 points that rocketed them up to fifth in the table.
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 41 (26-15 Cuneo)
Alberto Casadei (Bre Lannutti Cuneo): “Each game must be played like a final. More than looking at the results of the others, we should focus on ourselves. We are lucky to host two big teams, Piacenza and Macerata, in the next rounds. I think we can do well if we give everything we have to snatch something out of them. We’re preparing ourselves well, technically and tactically. No matter how well they’ll play, we’re always a gear up at home thanks to the exciting atmosphere there is in our PalaBrebanca arena. We are not afraid of anyone, we’ll play heads up and we’ll see what happens”.
Alessandro Fei (Copra Elior Piacenza): “Cuneo has been playing brilliantly of late, we’ll consequently have to be very careful, we’ll need maximum focus and determination. We’ve had a very difficult period, full of road games, we’re a bit tired, but we’ll definitely do everything possible to keep our positive run going”.
CMC Ravenna – Altotevere Città di Castello
Ravenna and Città di Castello will try to add to the excellent results they collected of late. They respectively gathered two and four consecutive wins. While Ravenna won twice on the road at the tie-break against Verona and Vibo, Città di Castello has become some kind of giant killer, having defeated Verona, Modena and the league leader Macerata. They consequently moved from 10th to 7th, and they’re just two points behind the fifth place occupied by Cuneo.
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 7 (5-2 Ravenna)
Marco Bonitta (Coach CMC Ravenna): “I expect it to be a good and hard-fought game, therefore interesting for the fans. Città di Castello is having a great season, they’ll be motivated to get another good result. As for us, after our win in Verona and the work done in training, we are convinced we can win this game”.
Christian Fromm (Altotevere Città di Castello): “We’re facing a tough encounter, like all the games to be honest in this league, we’ll see how it will plan out. In recent rounds, we gained a lot of confidence but we have to maintain our level of play as well as our concentration. The first meeting against Ravenna was a great battle, and Sunday will be the same. We’ll have to fight point after point”.
Diatec Trentino – Casa Modena
Trento and Modena face this game in a gloom period of their season. Trento was knocked out of the champions League and lost two league games running. They are without Sokolov and Szabò, while Birarelli and Suxho are not hundred percent fit. As for Modena, they’re on a five-game losing streak and had gone out of the Italian cup in the quarters (against Trento). Besides, Guillaume Quesque is on his way to Russia. However, a rumor not made official yet says French spiker Earvin Ngapeth (former Cuneo player) would leave the Russian side of Kemerovo to come to Modena.
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 44 (28-16 Trento)
Matteo Burgsthaler (Diatec Trentino): “We haven’t received much positive from recent games, we had some players missing too. But we know that if we can limit our mistakes and play as a team, like in the second part of Thursday’s game against Belgorod, we can make it, we can make it hard even for a tough opponent like Modena. It’s a difficult period for us but we have to look to the future with confidence”.
Angelo Lorenzetti (coach Casa Modena): “We don’t have many games left until the end of the regular season and things have gotten complicated for us. That’s why we have to try to snatch as many points as possible wherever we play. We’ve had ten difficult days, we have lost our way after a period in which we improved our game but did not get any points. We have to start over, motivate ourselves and try to play at the level we were capable of just about ten days ago. Trento can play excellent volleyball, and they can play fast. They’ll have a new line-up, we’ll need to do a good job of reading it”.
Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata – Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia
Vibo stopped a four game losing streak by beating Modena in the last round with Gavotto (seventh in the scoring chart) in great form. As for Macerata, they seem more vulnerable right now, out the Champions League at the playoffs 12 (beaten by Piacenza) and defeated in the league at the tie-break by both Perugia and Città di Castello. Paparoni will not play and Kurek is doubtful because of back problems.
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 22 (16-6 Macerata)
Stefano Patriarca (Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata): “We know that all the teams that play against us give hundred percent of their potential. Vibo will definitely come here up for it, ready to play all out on every rally. We’ll have to do a good job of maintaining a high level of play during the whole game, without letting them space to maneuver”.
Luigi Randazzo (Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia): “Last Saturday’s game against Modena was crucial because we had conceded a few defeats and we really needed points. It went well and we took three very important points. It will be very strange to go back to Macerata and play against the club where I grew up. But it will be great too because I’ll have the chance to see many friends who will come to see me. Hopefully we’ll have a good game, they are very strong, but we’re training well and we’ll have a go”.
Andreoli Latina – Calzedonia Verona
Latina and Verona seemed to have had opposite journeys this season. Latina had a poor first half of season with just two wins and are now finding its rhythm. They are not bottom anymore and qualified for the Challenge Cup semi-final. On the other hand, Verona had a superb run that had got them up to fifth but lately they seem to have put the brakes on. They’ve only taken one point in this second half of season so far and slipped to seventh. They were also knocked out of the cup in the quarter-finals.
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 19 (12-7 Verona)
Pieter Verhees (Andreoli Latina): “We have reached a European cup semi-final for the second time and we’re the only Italian club left. Shame there won’t be my former team Lennik, instead we’ll face a Turkish team like last year. Since the new coach took over we have always taken points and we’ve put a string of four consecutive wins together. This is positive, that gave us confidence. We know this will be another very important game for us to get back up the table”.
Dante Boninfante (Calzedonia Verona): “We’re going to Latina to win it. We’ve had an intense training week, with a friendly game that allowed us to try out game situations. We’ll try not to make the same mistakes as last Sunday. Latina is a tough opposition, but at the end of the day, all the teams in this league must be faced keeping in mind it won’t be easy. We know Latina plays better at home than away, we’ll have a fight on our hand right until the last point”.
Sir Safety Perugia – Exprivia Molfetta
Only one point taken in five games for Molfetta in a tie-break against Latina. They slipped to the bottom of the table. Despite the fact Sabbi is third in the scoring chart, Cichello’s team did not manage to put points on the board, not even with three home games, where they used to make the difference. As for Perugia, they have been
