Cucine Lube Banca Marche Civitanova-Diatec Trentino 2-3 (19-25, 25-17, 22-25, 27-25, 11-15)
CUCINE LUBE BANCA MARCHE CIVITANOVA – DIATEC TRENTINO 2-3 (19-25, 25-17, 22-25, 27-25, 11-15) – CUCINE LUBE BANCA MARCHE CIVITANOVA: Fei 1, Parodi 6, Juantorena 10, Stankovic 18, Priddy 3, Christenson 5, Cester 7, Grebennikov (L), Miljkovic 24, Podrascanin 10. DNP Vitelli, Corvetta, Cebulj. Coach. Blengini.
DIATEC TRENTINO: Antonov 4, Bratoev, Giannelli 4, Lanza 13, Solé 15, Djuric 25, Colaci (L), Van De Voorde 6, Urnaut 10, Mazzone. DNP Nelli, Mazzone, De Angelis. Coach. Stoytchev.
The Del Monte® Italian Cup final 2016 in Assago’s Forum tomorrow at 5.30pm will be Modena versus Trentino. The latter had the better of Civitanova at the end of five extremely tight sets in which the difference was made on a couple of rallies, no more. Modena against Trento is a remake of last year’s final won by Modena, and it is also a remake of the league final, in which Trento celebrated.
Tonight, it was show time from start to finish. Trento went ahead twice but Civitanova had none of it and fought back on each occasion to send it to a tie-break. And the fifth set was as thrilling as the whole game. Civitanova took the early lead (3-1) but aces from Urnaut and Solé had Trento moving in front (4-6). Civitanova could not seem to fill this two-point gap and there was more drama at the end with the Video Check which cancelled Trento’s first match point before confirming the second one. Lanza and co could finally celebrate.
Gianlorenzo Blengini (coach Cucine Lube Banca Marche Civitanova): “A defeat like this is tough to take in. The ones you lose at the tie-break hurt twice as much, even three times as much, especially when there’s so much at stake. Trento did an excellent job of coming back from behind in the fifth set. We never managed to catch up after that. Credit to them. Even before the fifth set we found it very hard, we struggled to build on certain leads. Very often, we’re not ready to play in the first set, we have to do better. Juantorena was not hundred percent, especially in reception, but he’s a player who can have a good influence even in precarious physical conditions, he can help the team get a break or get clutch points at the end of tight sets. The Italian Cup was one of our goals, but we couldn’t do it. We have to reflect on it in order to understand where we can get better. There are some inaccuracies we have clean up, defeats are useful as well to make steps forwards”.
Dragan Stankovic (Cucine Lube Banca Marche Civitanova): “Another bad defeat just like in the last two editions of the Italian Cup. This is the third time in a row that we lose in the semi-finals. We made too many mistakes in the first and third set, we did not play good dig either, so we didn’t have enough counters. We wanted to give it our best shot and we tried to take some risks, maybe too many, we might have thrown away a couple of plays where we should have been more patient. We lack consistency during the sets. There’s no easy games this season, but if we learn to play our best volleyball with consistency, we’ll have some excellent results”.
Radostin Stoytchev (coach Diatec Trentino): “I did not expect such a hard-fought game. We have been a bit unlucky in the fourth set but in the fifth we’re the ones who had some luck on our side. Both teams deserved to win, they have an excellent team. Modena is the most in-form team and they’ve proved it, we’ll have to give it a great fight. Those games are prepared first in terms of tactics and then psychologically but credit to the boys for clinching this victory”.
Mitar Djuric (Diatec Trentino): “I am delighted. We’ve done a great job, but we have to forget about this game. We’ll have to play even better tomorrow. They had more pressure than us and that helped us a little bit”.
Del Monte® Italian Cup SuperLega – Final
Mediolanum Forum – Assago (MI)
Sunday 7 February at 5.30pm
DHL Modena – Diatec Trentino – Live on RAI Sport 1
Del Monte® Italian Cup Serie A2 – Final
Mediolanum Forum – Assago (MI)
Sunday 7 February at 2pm
Globo Banca Popolare del Frusinate Sora – Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia Live on Sport 1 (ch 61) and Lega Volley Channel
