Italian Cup A1 – Quarter finals
The four teams qualifying for Verona’s Italian Cup Final Four, to be played on January 22-23, are Trentino, Cuneo, Macerata and Treviso. On the 23rd, there will also be the A2 cup final between Santa Croce and Ravenna, just before the A1 final.
Quarter-final results
Itas Diatec Trentino (1) – Acqua Paradiso Monza Brianza (8) 3-0 (25-17, 25-16, 25-19)
Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo(2) – RPA-LuigiBacchi.it San Giustino (7) 3-0 (25-10, 25-16, 26-24)
Lube Banca Marche Macerata (3) – Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia (6) 3-1 (25-27, 25-17, 25-17, 25-20)
Casa Modena (4) – Sisley Treviso (5) 1-3 (20-25, 35-33, 28-30, 16-25)
Trophy “ Banca Popolare di Verona”
Italian Cup Final Four Serie A1 – Serie A2 Final
Saturday 22 January at 3.30pm
1st semi-final Live on Raisport 1
Itas Diatec Trentino Vincente (1-8) – Sisley Treviso Vincente (4-5)
Saturday 22 January at 6pm
2nd semi-final Live on Raisport 1
Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo Vincente (2-7) – Lube Banca Marche Macerata Vincente (3-6)
Sunday 23 January at 2.30pm
Final A2
Marcegaglia CMC Ravenna – NGM Mobile Santa Croce Differed Rai Sport 1 from 9pm
Domenica 23 gennaio ore 18.00Sunday 23 January at 6pm
Final A1 Live on Raisport 1
ITAS DIATEC TRENTINO – ACQUA PARADISO MONZA BRIANZA 3-0 (25-17, 25-16, 25-19)
ITAS DIATEC TRENTINO: Kaziyski 14, Birarelli 5, Della Lunga 1, Juantorena 14, Zygadlo, Vieira De Oliveira 2, Sala 3, Sokolov 1, Colaci (L), Stokr 17, Bari (L). DNP Leonardi, Garcia Pires Ribeiro. Coach. Stoytchev.
ACQUA PARADISO MONZA BRIANZA: Cetrullo 4, Rauwerdink, Pesenti, Molteni 10, Buti 8, Rooney 5, Travica 4, Gavotto 4, Shumov 2, Exiga (L). DNP Krumins, Zito, Alborghetti. Coach. Monti.
Monza did not trouble Trentino. The league leaders won in straight sets in just 1’10 of play. The holders will therefore be in Verona to try to retain its title. MVP: Juantorena.
Matey Kaziyski (Itas Diatec Trentino): “We expected a much tighter game but we made it easy for ourselves thanks to an excellent evening on the serve, which made the difference right from the start. Let’s focus on the Final Four in Verona now, it is an important target. We want the final at all cost”.
Luca Monti (Acqua Paradiso Monza Brianza): “It is not the first time that Trento put us under such pressure with its serving. We obviously struggle against such teams because this is a carbon copy game of the one played in the league. Without a good performance in that department, everything becomes more difficult, and Gavotto was the first the pay the price as the block of the opponent was really careful. I feel sorry for him because he had just had two good games”,
BRE BANCA LANNUTTI CUNEO – RPA-LUIGIBACCHI.IT SAN GIUSTINO 3-0 (25-10, 25-16, 26-24)
BRE BANCA LANNUTTI CUNEO: Mastrangelo 8, Henno (L), Parodi 12, Wijsmans 14, Grbic 2, Nikolov 17, Patriarca, Volkov 8. DNP Fortunato, Montagna, Carletti, Peda. Coach. Giuliani.
RPA-LUIGIBACCHI.IT SAN GIUSTINO: Zhukouski, Van Den Dries 2, Schwarz 9, Bartoletti 2, Dias, Giovi (L), Finazzi 5, Nikic 6, Braga, Maric 8, Cester 1, Steuerwald 1. DNP Lo Bianco. Coach. Zanini.
Cuneo thrashed San Giustino, at least for two out of three sets. It qualifies for the Italian Cup semi-final as Grbic was named MVP.
Emanuele Zanini (RPA-LuigiBacchi.it San Giustino): “In the first two sets, some players did not play at all. I think it might be because of the emotions to play such a crucial game like this one. Shame because after two sets like these, there was little that could be done. Then, things went a little bit better, but 2-3 mistakes were enough to let it slip away. I’m sorry with the way things went, but when you think of our initial targets, we did well to get this far”.
Nikola Grbic (Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo): “We did what we were asked to, to play one game at a time, without making the mistake of not focusing our effort on the present target. I think this is the right mentality, this is the attitude to adopt for each encounter. I am satisfy because we did not lose too much energy, we can’t afford to right now”.
LUBE BANCA MARCHE MACERATA – TONNO CALLIPO VIBO VALENTIA 3-1 (25-27, 25-17, 25-17, 25-20)
LUBE BANCA MARCHE MACERATA: Savani 24, Paparoni (L), Vermiglio 4, Conte 2, Stankovic 3, Martino 6, Omrcen 19, Podrascanin 9. DNP Lampariello, Marchiani, Vadeleux, Van Walle, Cacchiarelli. Coach. Berruto.
TONNO CALLIPO VIBO VALENTIA: Rivera Caamano 13, Coscione 3, Iurlaro 6, Anderson 19, Ferraro (L), Baroti 8, Ananiev 1, Nikolov 6. DNP Feroleto, Kindgard, Simeonov, Crigna. Coach. Di Pinto.
Macerata made the double over Vibo Valentia after the league victory last weekend. Berruto’s team will meet the Italian champs of Cuneo in the semi-finals in Verona. MVP: Savani.
Valerio Vermiglio (Lube Banca Marche Macerata): “In the end, the result was the one that everybody expected, but the attitude seen on court can’t be considered satisfying at all. We did some good things, but I repeat, we will need a whole different approach in the Final Four. We know we have the potential to play good volleyball, we have to put that into practice. In Verona, we’ll need to see a Verona team that will not surrender under any circumstances”.
Vincenzo Di Pinto (Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia): “I am happy with the way my team performed, in spite of the missing players we managed to make it tough for a strong team like Macerata. The first set was brilliant, with Coscione shining. We did not make any mistake. In the long run, the difference of level between the two teams came out, Vermiglio and especially Savani lead the way for Macerata”.
CASA MODENA – SISLEY TREVISO 1-3 (20-25, 35-33, 28-30, 16-25)
CASA MODENA: Manià (L), Fabroni, Kooistra 10, Dennis 5, Berezhko 3, Kooy 16, Casadei 20, Esko, Creus Larry 3, Casoli 10, Diaz 3, Piscopo. DNP Ciabattini. Coach. Prandi.
SISLEY TREVISO: Szabo, Fei 24, Horstink 9, Kovar 11, Papi 5, Farina (L), Boninfante 4, De Togni, Bontje 13, Maruotti 9, Bjelica 9. DNP Elgarten, Vanin. Coach. Piazza.
Treviso won this 99th Italian classic and qualified for the Italian Cup Final Four. It won in Modena in what has been a thrilling and intense encounter which lasted over two hours. MVP Fei.
Silvano Prandi (Casa Modena): “I really can’t understand that beginning of game of ours. We probably had a dip after the Monza game, now we have to analyse what went wrong, in order to get back on track”.
Roberto Piazza (Sisley Treviso): “We could have and should have sealed this second set. But then we did well to react and play better in reception. The semi-final against Trento? The last time against them, we lost badly and their coach said they were at 60, 70%, hopefully on Saturday they will be at 50%”.
