Redemption is the word. After losing the first match of the semifinals, ABBA Pineto leaves for Catania with a single imperative: to draw the series. Wednesday 3 May at 20:30 in Sicily Calonico and his teammates will play the entire season against a formation capable of canceling the home factor and imposing the first internal stop on the biancazzurri. A victory for the hosts would mark the end of ABBA’s 2022-23 season and give Catania access to the last phase, on the contrary, a victory for the Teramos would reopen the series by postponing the clash for the last act on Sunday May 7th.
Sunday at the Palavolley Santa Maria, after the usual start at an irrepressible pace, Pineto suffered from the services of Catania and the fast ball of a great Fabroni. The expert setter, formerly of the challenge, managed to sort his supplies across multiple sources and allowed four teammates to close in double figures. In Catania it will therefore be of primary importance to raise the level of play starting from the service to hinder the defensive application of the landlords by limiting the outings of the playmaker born in 1981.
Within friendly walls, Farmitalia is far from perfect. After the first round ended with five victories and just one knockout against Ortona, three more defeats arrived in the second round which equalized the home/away score (9v, 4s). An atypical formation therefore, as further demonstrated by the 3-2 in the quarterfinals with Savigliano in Game 1 and the more comfortable 0-3 in the Piedmontese arena. On the other hand, to date, Catania is the only semi-finalist to have a flawless path in the playoff race. There are no calculations or conjectures that hold: access to the finals passes through the PalaCatania. Pineto therefore tightens up to accomplish the feat and bring “the beautiful” back to the eyes of the blue-and-white public. Cohesion and experience will have to be the key factors towards the rescue.
