Serie A1 TIM
Round 12
Midweek games are coming up in the A1 and the games are becoming more and more important as the Italian Cup Final Eight is approaching (30 December). The 12th round will start on Wednesday night with a clash of giants: Piacenza versus Treviso. On Thursday, Trento travels to Forli, while Modena heads to Perugia to face Sartoretti for the first time as opponent. Cuneo entertains Pineto, which will be led by new coach Roberto Fant. Macerata goes south to Taranto, while Monza will be without its chairman for the first time at home as it will challenge Verona, which is also in need of crucial points to qualify for the Italian Cup. At the bottom, Loreto versus Latina is a match up between team fighting to stay up. Vibo will be rested.
Round 12
Wednesday 25 November at 8.30pm
CoprAtlantide Piacenza – Sisley Treviso Live on Rai Sport Più
Live streaming on www.rai.tv/dl/RaiTV/diretta.html
(Castagna-Cipolla)
Thursday 26 November at 8.30pm
Prisma Taranto – Lube Banca Marche Macerata
(Giani-Barbero)
Esse-ti Carilo Loreto – Andreoli Latina
(Saltalippi-Rapisarda)
Yoga Forlì – Itas Diatec Trentino
(Bartolini-Pol)
Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo – Aran Cucine Abruzzo Pineto
(Sobrero-Braico)
Acqua Paradiso Monza – Marmi Lanza Verona
(La Micela-Boris)
RPA-LuigiBacchi.it Perugia – Trenkwalder Modena
(Pasquali-Sampaolo)
Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia – RESTED
League table
Itas Diatec Trentino 26, Trenkwalder Modena, CoprAtlantide Piacenza 22, Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo 21, Sisley Treviso, Lube Banca Marche Macerata 19, RPA-LuigiBacchi.it Perugia 18, Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia, Marmi Lanza Verona 17, Acqua Paradiso Monza 16, Prisma Taranto 13, Esse-ti Carilo Loreto 8, Andreoli Latina, Yoga Forlì 6, Aran Cucine Abruzzo Pineto 1.
1 game more: CoprAtlantide Piacenza, Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia, Marmi Lanza Verona, Andreoli Latina.
Prisma Taranto – Lube Banca Marche Macerata
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 12 (9-3 Macerata)
Giuseppe De Patto (Direttore Sportivo Prisma Taranto): “The break helped us to take in the Modena defeat. The boys decided not to look behind but think about the next opponent, Macerata. This is a very strong team, one put together with the ambition to win the title again. Strong in every position, but we believe in our ability. The win against Treviso, but also the performance against Modena, made us understand that we can play face to face with teams technically better than us. The supporters will give us a good hand on Thursday. It’s nice to applaud the opponent but we want a great atmosphere in our favour”.
Martin Lebl (Lube Banca Marche Macerata): “The game against Taranto, just like last Saturday’s game, is a crucial one to reach our first target, which is the Italian Cup quarter finals. It will definitely be tough down south, because Taranto is an excellent team that managed to make it difficult for various big names. But given the Macerata team seen on Saturday, we can face this encounter with confidence”.
Esse-ti Carilo Loreto – Andreoli Latina
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 12 (8-4 Latina)
Paolo Politi (Direttore Generale Esse-ti Carilo Loreto): “It’s a very important game for both teams given that we are fighting to stay up. We have to make the home court advantage count to get away from our opponent of the day in the table. In the return game in Latina, it won’t be easy to take points. We’ll see if the boys overcame the critical episode that occurred against Cuneo and can play at the level of the beginning of championship”.
Gianrio Falivene (Presidente Andreoli Latina): “It’s an important moment of the season, we have to play like real men and show our worth. It will be more than a game, a test for everybody. Useless to say that, I’ve asked one thing to the boys: three points”.
Yoga Forlì – Itas Diatec Trentino
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 4 (Trento won them all)
Alberto Casadei (Yoga Forlì): “There shouldn’t be any doubt on who the winner of this game will be. But we are going through a very positive spell, we have stepped up a gear a couple of weeks ago. We made it difficult for Treviso and Perugia, and we can manage to do it again against Trento. We’ll see what we can do, at what level we can express ourselves, considering that their squad is second to none”.
Osmany Juantorena (Itas Diatec Trentino): “If we look at the league table, we could think of it as an easy game. The truth is that this Forli team does not reassure me, in two months of championship I have already perfectly understood that you can’t afford to relax against anyone. We’ll go there determined to take the three points but also ready to fight because we know games can become difficult, especially away from home. Luckily, we have been rested last week, we needed it to face an intense month of December”.
Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo – Aran Cucine Abruzzo Pineto
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 2 (2 successi Cuneo)
Luigi Mastrangelo (Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo): “Pineto cannot be underestimated, it has good players. Their league position does not correspond to the characteristics of the team, which will come out along the way. We’ll have to be careful not to underestimate them and face this game with the same mentality as when we faced Trento and Piacenza, playing our game”.
Roberto Fant (Aran Cucine Abruzzo Pineto): “Hopefully, my arrival will help to turn things around. I’m sure the boys will play at their best. It will be a tough game in Cuneo but I prefer to focus on a different aspect: to build on the good things seen until today and use it to improve, get off the mark and get a win. Besides, winning helps to win and this is the only way to stay up: a target that I believe possible and which convinced me to say ‘yes’ to Pineto”.
Acqua Paradiso Monza – Marmi Lanza Verona
PAST ENCOUNTERS: None
Mauro Berruto (Acqua Paradiso Monza): “The game against Verona, together with the one against Vibo Valentia, become important ones for us as it will define the 8 teams that will take part in the Italian Cup. Our thoughts are on this ambitious target, which came about after the game played on Saturday against Macerata. Despite the fact we haven’t gathered any points at the end of the four sets, we played at a very high level. Not only did we gain confidence but we are now also aware of certain abilities, which maybe we thought we didn’t have”.
Daniel Howard (Marmi Lanza Verona): “It will be a big game emotionally, but also in terms of technique and quality too. Monza plays good volleyball but we’ll go there to get points. We have what it takes to make it, although we’ll have to hit the serve hard and have the same aggressiveness as against Trento”.
RPA-LuigiBacchi.it Perugia – Trenkwalder Modena
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 14 (9-5 Modena)
Claudio Sciurpa (Presidente RPA-LuigiBacchi.it Perugia): “No need to talk much about Thursday’s game against Modena. There is little to say and a lot to do. We have to play the jolly. We have a series of extremely tough games ahead, between league and cup, and against Modena we have to get a result. I would also like to erase the 21st of December 2008: Perugia-Modena, the last game before the halfway point of the season, the decisive one for the Italian Cup Final Eight. We lost, a terrible performance. It would be important to win on Thursday, not only to get points on the table but also to erase this memory”.
Luis Diaz (Trenkwalder Modena): “Perugia did not get off to a great start this season but it’s back at its real level now, the level of a strong team with quality and experienced players. They are very good on the serve, we’ll have to do well to contain them in reception. We’ll need to stay composed, play our game fighting on every ball. Our target is to get points against anyone”.
