SERIE A1 TIM, 24th ROUND
Big games for playoffs and fight to stay up
In the A1, 5 teams are involved in the fight not to go down. Modena (27 pts), faces Macerata as it needs one win to be mathematically safe. Still this road game in the Fontescodella is anything but easy against a team in great form that has just swept the European champions of Kazan in midweek in the quarter finals of the Champions League. Martina Franca will try to beat Piacenza after three consecutive losses. Padova entertains Cuneo and has no choice but defeat them if they don’t want to be officially down. Forli travels to Vibo Valentia with Alberto Casadei who will substitute Tuba following his brilliant performance of last week. Tough game for Forli as Piacenza is now safe and wants to sneak into the playoffs. The fear of going down and the playoffs are all themes of the Monday night game between Pineto and Verona. The hosts will try to have the better of a team that had always beaten them.
Towards the top of the table, Trentino will try to defend its first place as it plays host to Perugia, eager to show that last week’s loss was just an incident. Stoychev has a few players doubtful: Vissotto should be able to play but Della Lunga and Kaziyski are not as likely to play.
New signing Salmon could make his debut with Treviso in the big game against Montichiari. The hosts showed they were on their way back against Macerata and they will try to obtain their ticket for the playoffs with a couple of games in hand.
SERIE A1 TIM – 24th Round
Sunday 8 March at 6pm
Lube Banca Marche Macerata – Trenkwalder Modena
(La Micela – Ippoliti)
Antonveneta Padova – Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo
(Saltalippi – Padoan)
Stamplast Martina Franca – Copra Nordmeccanica Piacenza
(Pol – Bartolini)
Itas Diatec Trentino – RPA-LuigiBacchi.it Perugia
(Puecher – Rapisarda)
Sisley Treviso – Acqua Paradiso Gabeca Montichiari
(Sampaolo – Santi)
Sunday 8 March at 6.30pm
Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia – Yoga Forlì DIRETTA SKY SPORT 2
(Castagna – Pessolano)
Monday 9 March at 8.30pm
Framasil Pineto – Marmi Lanza Verona
(Cinti – Cesare)
TABLE
Itas Diatec Trentino 52, Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo, Lube Banca Marche Macerata 50, RPA-LuigiBacchi.it Perugia, Copra Nordmeccanica Piacenza 44, Acqua Paradiso Gabeca Montichiari 40, Sisley Treviso 34, Marmi Lanza Verona 33, Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia 30, Trenkwalder Modena 27, Stamplast Martina Franca 23, Framasil Pineto 22, Yoga Forlì 20, Antonveneta Padova 14.
LUBE BANCA MARCHE MACERATA – TRENKWALDER MODENA
Past encounters: 46 (27-19 successi Modena)
First leg: Trenkwalder Modena – Lube Banca Marche Macerata 3-2 (25-19, 25-22, 19-25, 18-25, 18-16)
Valerio Vermiglio (Lube Banca Marche Macerata): “Modena found a good asset, it will surely be another battle on Sunday. Lately, we’ve been playing every three days, but in such big games, you don’t don’t think about the tiredness. We want to keep our positive home run going and get to the playoffs in as great a shape as we can. And victories do help a lot mentally”.
Emanuele Zanini (Trenkwalder Modena): “We’re facing a very tough game against one fo the strongest team of the league. Macerata is playing great volleyball right now, it basically has two teams, with a deep bench, and it has a leader like Veròeglio who makes his teammates play at their best thanks to his experience. We’re extremely motivated. First of all, we need to get the points to be definitely safe and then we have to keep fighting to reach the playoffs. Besides these targets, the outcome of the next three games will give us some important indications for the planning of our future”.
ANTONVENETA PADOVA – BRE BANCA LANNUTTI CUNEO
Past encounters: 43 (32-11 Cuneo)
First leg: Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo – Antonveneta Padova 3-0 (25-14, 25-23, 37-25)
Simone Roscini (secondo allenatore Antonveneta Padova): “We’re still in the A1 only mathematically, but that’s no excuse to give up. On Sunday, we’ll be playing against one of the strongest teams of the league, but we’ll have to go after the three points even though we know it’s going ot be tricky. Whatever the outcome against Cuneo, we’ll give our best in the last few games, both for us and our fans. We will play every game at hundred percent”.
Valerio Curti (Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo): “Even though we are already working for the Cev Cup Final Four, we have to focus on Sunday’s game against Padova. We aim to finish as high up in the table as possible. This is something important for me, so we’ll go there to get some important points”.
STAMPLAST MARTINA FRANCA – COPRA NORDMECCANICA PIACENZA
Past encounters: 7 (2 successi Martina Franca, 5 Piacenza)
First leg: Copra Nordmeccanica Piacenza – Stamplast Martina Franca 3-0 (25-15, 25-21, 25-21)
Israel Rodriguez (Stamplast Martina Franca): “We want to be definitely safe against Piacenza. It won’t be easy but we’ll have a go. The points against Modena boosted our confidence following our poor perfromances against Vibo and Padova. We’ve been expressing our best volleyball against the top teams so far. We need the points to make sure we don’t get into a tricky situation and to put the end-word on a season a bit absurd in some ways”.
Angelo Lorenzetti (Copra Nordmeccanica Piacenza): “Unfortunately, we’re now out of the Champions League btu we have more time to work. We’re intensifying the training to be ready in ths end of season. We still have a few injuries so we won’t be at our best but we’re slowly finding our game back, which for some reason had disappeared. On Sunday, we’ll face a team that had its moment during the season, showing the quality of its players, some excellent ones. They’ve lacked consistency but at home they are difficult to beat and they are eager to be mathematically safe as quickly as possible”.
ITAS DIATEC TRENTINO – RPA-LUIGIBACCHI.IT PERUGIA
Past encounters: 17 (10 successi Trento, 7 Perugia)
First leg: RPA-LuigiBacchi.it Perugia – Itas Diatec Trentino 0-3 (21-25, 22-25, 20-25)
Emanuele Birarelli (Itas Diatec Trentino): “The Champions league game took some our physical and mental energy away before this very difficult game. We still have to figure out if at least one of Della Lunga and Kaziyski will recover on time from their ankle injuries. Perugia lost against Cuneo last Sunday but we shouldn’t be fooled by this result, they are in excellent form. We’ll have to play with pride to get a positive result. That’s what we did in Czestochowa and I’m sure we can make it on Sunday too”.
Damiano Pippi (RPA-LuigiBacchi.it Perugia): “Trento is a tough place to go. They are the main title favourite but we have to go there convinced we can get a result. It would be a breakthrough to beat them but we have everything it takes to play face to face. Their main man is Kaziyski even though we still don’t know whether he’ll be fit. The outside hitter Vissotto and spiker Winiarski are excellent too”.
SISLEY TREVISO – ACQUA PARADISO GABECA MONTICHIARI
Past encounters: 56 (47 successi Treviso, 9 Montichiari)
First leg: Acqua Paradiso Gabeca Montichiari – Sisley Treviso 3-1 (25-23, 21-25, 29-27, 25-22)
Riley Salmon (Sisley Treviso): “I’m very happy to be here. This is a great opportunity for me to play in such a legendary team, alongside some of the best players in the world. I’ve worked in recent weeks to be physically in shape and I’m now ready to play. I’m really happy to make my debut on Sunday and hopefully I’ll be able to help the team reach the playoffs”.
TONNO CALLIPO VIBO VALENTIA – YOGA FORLI’
Past encounters: 10 (9 successi Vibo Valentia, 1 Forlì)
First leg: Yoga Forlì – Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia 0-3 (15-25, 20-25, 20-25)
Francesco Prestinenzi (DS Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia): “The victory in Verona was very important because it means we’re safe and this puts us in a good position for the playoffs. We have some easier fixtures than the teams that are thrree points ahead of us. Uriarte set out a different volleyball compared to the one the boys were playing before and that is paying off now. Now that we have things under control, we have to try to get it all right, focusing solely on Forli in order not to run the risk to lose this great opportunity that opened up”.
Massimiliano Di Franco (Yoga Forlì): “Crucial game for us. We’ll face it without fear. There are important points at stake but we can’t afford to get on court with fear. Some of us had never won, other have never lost…we’ll see what happens. We’ve been able to train without much physical problems this week, I’think the team is in good shape. It all depends on us now”.
FRAMASIL PINETO – MARMI LANZA VERONA
Past encounters: 3 (3 successi Verona)
First leg: Marmi Lanza Verona – Framasil Pineto 3-1 (25-21, 32-30, 21-25, 25-22)
Marco Mancini (capitano Framasil Pineto): “This is an extremely important games, it will be a tense game. Their team can count on a variety of tactical solutions thanks to a couple of excellent players, so that is very difficult to prepare ourselves to stop them. We know for well this could be the game of our life. If we won we’d be very close to stay up”.
Daniele Sottile (Marmi Lanza Verona): “The poor loss against Vibo is behind us, we still have a three-point advantage and all our energy is concentrated on Monday’s game. We’ll try to beat Pineto, by remaining composed and playing without pressure. In our earlier meeting, the serve proved to be crucial, hopefully it will work well because this could favour us”.
SERIE A2 TIM
Latina in Loreto’s fortress
In the 25th round, the big game will be at the PalaSerenelli gym between Loreto and Latina. Loreto is the only remaining unbeaten team at home as it plays host to the third power of the league, who wants to get back to winning ways after two consecutive losses in order to chase the first place, and the possibility to go straight up.
Following their defeat against Crema, the league leaders Santa Croce will meet Isernia, who tallied 7 wins out of 9 encounters in the return games.
Bassano is desperate to get back on track after three consecutive defeats. It entertains the Crema team of Roberto “Virus” Cazzaniga, true leader in the last game against Santa Croce. A win would help Cazzaniga and co to keep their distance on the 10th team of this league, Castellana Grotte, as they aim for the playoffs.
After their derby win, Roma will try to overcome Bologna, who has been without a win since the 6th of January. Piacentini’s team will have to make do without Simone Spescha, who injured his hand in a car accident after the friendly game against Latina. On the other hand, Osvaldo Hernandez is back and could already play this Sunday.
A team that seems unstoppable in this second half of championship is mantova. Eight consecutive wins rocketed Marchesi’s team in the playoffs zone, in seventh place, 6 points above Crema and with the sixth place at striking distance.
Catania keeps fighting to stay up: they are four points above the danger zone and another win, against a direct opponent, Castelfidardo, would greatly help to reach their target. The Monday night game is Città di Castello versus Castellana Grotte, which will be live on Snai Sat.
25th ROUND FIXTURES AND REFS
Sunday 8 March at 6pm
Sp Catania – La Nef Castelfidardo
(Florian – Guerzoni)
Esse-ti Carilo Loreto – Andreoli Latina
(Genna – Braiato)
Bassano Volley – Samgas Crema
(Falzoni – Pozzato)
M. Roma Volley – Wayel Bologna
(Venturi – Cardaci)
Codyeco S. Croce – Olio Pignatelli Isernia
(Fiore – Guerra)
Canadiens Mantova – Edilesse Cavriago
(Valeriani – Pignataro)
Sunday 8 March at 8.30pm
Gherardi Cartoedit Tratos C. di Castello – Materdomini Volley.it Castellana Grotte LIVE ON SNAI Sat
(Simbari – Andreoni)
Rested: Nava Gioia del Colle
TABLE
Codyeco S.Croce 50, Esse-Ti Carilo Loreto 46, Andreoli Latina 45, Bassano Volley 43, Nava Gioia del Colle 41, Olio Pignatelli Isernia 40, Canadiens Mantova 39, Samgas Crema 33, M. Roma Volley 31, Materdomini Volley.it Castellana Grotte 28, Wayel Bologna 26, Sp Catania 24, Edilesse Cavriago 20, La Nef Castelfidardo, Gherardi Cartoedit Tratos C.di Castello 19.
Note: 1 Game more: Codyeco S.Croce, Nava Gioia del Colle, Materdomini Volley.it Castellana Grotte, Wayel Bologna, Sp Catania, La Nef Castelfidardo.
