Video Check
The Federal Council met today in Rome and gave the green light for the use of the Video Check system (perimeter lines) in the A1 Italian Cup Final Four and the A2 Italian Cup final.
The Video Check can be called by any of the two captains within 7 seconds after the end of the action. Each team will have two calls per set. If the control brings a change in the referee decision then the number of calls remain the same. On the other hand if the image confirms the decision of the referee, then the team that requested the check will have one less call in the set.
Del Monte Italian Cup A1 – Quarter finals
Boxing day brings to you the Italian Cup with the A1 quarter-finals, in which there are the 8 top teams of the first half of league regular season. The four winners will qualify for the Final Four to take place in Assago on December 29-30.
Del Monte Italian Cup Serie A1 – Quarter-finals
Wednesday December 26 at 5pm
Copra Elior Piacenza (3) – (6) Casa Modena Live on Rai Sport 1
Wednesday December 26 at 6pm
Itas Diatec Trentino (1) – (8) Sir Safety Perugia Live on Sportube.tv
Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia (4) – (5) Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo
Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata (2) – (7) Andreoli Latina
Del Monte Italian Cup Serie A1 – Final Four
Mediolanum Forum Assago (MI)
Saturday December 29 at 4pm
1st semi-final
Winner (1)/(8) – Winner (4)/(5) Live on RAI Sport 1
Saturday December 29 at 6.30pm
2nd Semi-final
Winner (2)/(7) – (3)/(6) Live on RAI Sport 1
Del Monte Italian cup Serie A2 – Final
Sunday December 30 at 2.30pm
Live on RAI Sport 1
Del Monte Italian Cup Serie A1 – Final
Sunday December 30 at 5.30pm
Live on RAI Sport 1
Itas Diatec Trentino – Sir Safety Perugia
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 1 (Trento won it)
CUP MEETINGS: None
Roberto Serniotti (Itas Diatec Trentino): “It’s in or out which brings its share of extra difficulty even if we will have the court advantage. The mistake we should not make is look beyond this game. If we are to qualify, we’ll think about the Final Four from Thursday. For now we have to beat Perugia, the surprise team of the championship. Its victory over Cuneo in the last round makes it clear that underestimating this opponent could cost us dear”.
Nemanja Petric (Sir Safety Perugia): “Our opponents are obviously hot favourites. We’re talking about the league leaders, the world champions, and If I am not mistaken they have won 21 in a row. And above all they’ll be at home. But we have nothing to lose, it’s a game in which we have to give everything. We proved we could give a game to everyone, that we have quality and a good system. We’re training well and hard and at Christmas we’ll go there with confidence, knowing we can have a good game and do our best”.
Trento in the cup:
11 participations and 2 titles won in 2012 against Macerata and 2010 against Cuneo. One final lost in 2011 against Cuneo.
Perugia in the cup:
1 participation. It was in the A2 cup in 2011-12 when it was knocked out at the semi-final stage by Castellana Grotte.
Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata – Andreoli Latina
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 25 (22-3 Macerata)
CUP MEETINGS: None
Hubert Henno (Cucine Lube Banca Marche Macerata): “It’s second against seventh, so it’s normal that we are the favorites. Having said that, given that it’s a knock-out game, it will be very difficult, and our opponent have a lot less to lose than us. We’ll need to face this quarter-final with determination, and give our best from first to last play. We earned the right to play it at home, with our fans, and the gym should be packed. That is surely an important factor. We really want to go to Assago’s Final Four, and we’ll do everything possible to get there”.
Silvano Prandi (coach Andreoli Latina): “Macerata is a great team and is the favourite. But we’re certainly not going there on holiday. We’ll try to make life difficult for them. We have a tough task but we’ll give everything we have against this team of great players”.
Macerata in the cup:
18 participations, 4 titles: in 2001 and 2003 (vs Treviso), 2008 (vs Roma) and 2009 (vs Cuneo)
Latina in the cup:
8 participation. Latina won one title but the A2 cup in 2009 against Gioia del Colle.
Copra Elior Piacenza – Casa Modena
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 25 (15-10 Piacenza)
CUP MEETINGS 1 – Quarter-finals 2005-06 (Piacenza – Modena 3-2).
Hristo Zlatanov (Copra Elior Piacenza): “Seeing Lorenzetti on the other side, friend of many adventures, will not make us lose our way. With Angelo we have been after this cup for a long time. It was kind of work in progress for us in the past two years, and now we are finally back on track with a shot at it. It’s gratifying, we’ll try not to disappoint our fans”.
Marco Piscopo (Casa Modena): “We are happy to have reached this target and to be amongst the eight teams that will play for the trophy. We deserved to qualify and now we want to live the experience to the maximum. Piacenza is a great team, one of the strongest of the league, they have gotten better in the second part and they’ve been playing very well. We have a brand new team, we’re very young, we might lack experience for those events but we are eager to improve day after day. We have gotten better too but if we want to have a chance, we’ll need a top quality performance, technically and mentally. In regular season we lost 3-1, making mistakes in the important moments of the game. So we’ll have to limit our mistakes to the minimum and remained focused on every single points. Let’s think as always one set at a time”.
Piacenza in the cup:
9 participations. Piacenza won an A2 cup in 2002 against Forlì. In the A1 cup, their best result is a final lost against Cuneo in 2006.
Modena in the cup:
30 participations: 10 titles: in 1979, 1980, 1985, 1986 (the cup had a group instead of knock-out stages). Then in 1988 (vs Bologna), 1989 (vs Treviso), 1994 (vs Parma), 1995 (vs Treviso), 1997 (vs Cuneo) and 1998 (vs Cuneo).
Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia – Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo
PAST ENCOUNTERS: 17 (15-2 Cuneo)
CUP MEETINGS: 1 – Quarter-finals 2005-06 (Cuneo – Vibo Valentia 3-0).
Gianlorenzo Blengini (coach Tonno Callipo Vibo Valentia): “Cuneo is one of the four giants of the league. They have beaten us in the league. All their players are top class, and despite some ups and downs, they proved they could play at a very high level, like the extraordinary performance they displayed against Macerata. They have Sokolov, the top scorer of the league. I’m really struggling to find any weaknesses to this team. One more important factor is that they’re used to those in-or-out games. As for us, we have the court advantage, and the trend says we have done better at home than away. We’ll have to play our best volley, Cuneo was surely disappointed to have to play this quarter away and they’ll surely be up for it”.
Nikola Grbic (Bre Banca Lannutti Cuneo): “A quarter-final in the Italian cup is always a tough game, no matter who the opponent is. I think we complicated things for ourselves, but hopefully, as it happened on other occasions in which things got difficult for us, we pulled together and managed to play a good game. I hope we will play with the right attitude too on December 26, this is a big game, this is the Italian cup”.
Vibo in the Cup:
9 Participations. Vibo won in one of its four attempt in the A2 cup in 2003 against Lamezia. Its best result in the A1 came in 2005, beaten in the final by Treviso.
Cuneo in the cup:
21 participations. 5 time winners: in 1996 (vs Treviso), 1999 (vs Treviso), in 2002 (vs Parma), 2006 (vs Piacenza) and 2011 (Vs Trentino).
