Cucine Lube Civitanova is preparing to return to the field for the second preseason test. Tomorrow, Friday 8 September (8pm) at the PalaCingolani-Pierini in Recanati, the men of Chicco Blengini will compete in a friendly regional derby with free entry against Yuasa Battery Grottazzolina, an A2 Credem Banca team in which two former red and whites play: the libero Andrea Marchisio, who between 2017/18 and 2021/22 won a Club World Cup, a Champions League, three Scudetti and two Italian Cups as a chef, and the setter Manuele Marchiani, who grew up in the Lube academy, winning a Junior League, and then part of the first team group in 2010/11, the year of the Challenge Cup triumph.
It will be a homage to the Recanati venue, fresh from a major restyling, which doubled the capacity to 2000 seats, and fresh from the inauguration on Wednesday, which saw the Virtus Libertas Pesaro establish itself with an authoritarian game in the friendly match against Latina Basket.
With the exception of the Danish opposite player Rasmus Breuning Nielsen, the staff of coach Massimiliano Ortenzi’s Yuasa Battery Grottazzolina should be full, while the Cucine Lube Civitanova, orphan of the Nationals, will face the blitz in Leopardi’s city with six athletes from the first team: Francesco Bisotto, Enrico Diamantini, Jacopo Larizza, Matheus Motzo, Jakob Thelle and Ivan Zaytsev. Three emerging players from the Volley Lube Academy should also join them, namely Francesco Giacomini and the U17 European champions Gianluca Cremoni and Andrea Giani. Furthermore, five young foreigners who are currently training in Civitanova Marche are available to the staff: the three Bulgarian talents of Levski Sofia, Alex Kandev, Simeon Nikolov and Kristian Titriyski, the Brazilian with a Spanish passport Davi Tenorio and the Greek Stavros Mouchlias