Super Lega 2022 - News

Piacenza Trentino 2304

World champions Romanò and Michieletto will battle in the final encounter between Piacenza and Trentino

It’s Tuesday or never for the four teams that are battling in the semifinals of the SuperLega Credem Banca as the duels Itas Trentino vs. Gas Sales Bluernergy Piacenza and Cucine Lube Civitanova vs. Allianz Milano will both come to an end after five exciting duels.

Tied at 2-2, both series will have their final and decisive chapters on Tuesday, at 18:00 local time (16:00 UTC), when Trentino host Piacenza and Lube return home to face Milano.

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Trentino will be at home against Piacenza, but enter the decisive match under pressure. The 2022 FIVB Men’s Club World Championship silver medallists not only saw their 2-0 lead in the series vanish over the last few days, but also weren’t able to take a single set from Piacenza in the last two matches.

“We expected this series to come down to a fifth match because of the quality of both teams, but we’re obviously disappointed with how it happened,” coach Angelo Lorenzetti reflected.

Piacenza, on the other hand, couldn’t be in a better place mentally after they managed to even the series with consecutive strong performances against Trentino. The Coppa Italia winners are now just one victory away from repeating the amazing feat they accomplished in the quarterfinals, when they came back from a 2-0 deficit against Valsa Group Modena to win their series.

“Our fans have been amazing during the playoffs,” opposite Yuri Romanò said. “We’ve been feeling a different energy in our stadium during the postseason and hope we can repay their support with another win in the fifth match, which is the most important one. This series has been very tough and we’ve been taking it one match at a time.”

Lube Milano 2304

Lube avoided elimination on Saturday and will be back home for the 'series finale'

Defending champions Lube also enter their fifth duel with Milano with great confidence. The team entered the last match between the teams down 2-1 in the series and dropped the first two sets, but found the energy to fight back and win in the tie-breaker, pushing the decision for Tuesday.

“I think this series has two teams which are very strong and are willing to leave everything on the court to win,” coach Gianlorenzo Blengini analysed. “Milano are a very good team, that works hard and makes very few mistakes. We wanted to return home for the fifth match and now we need to remain lucid and fresh to face this final challenge.”

Milano saw their dream of making it to the Italian League final for the first time be postponed after Lube’s comeback on Saturday, but they are determined to not let their final opportunity of advancing slip on Tuesday.

“Lube gained a lot of confidence because they weren’t playing well in the first two sets, but found their rhythm and won the last match,” outside hitter Yuki Ishikawa reacted. “The fifth match will be very tough and we’ll need to enter the court very focused and determined and to play aggressively. It doesn’t matter how we do it, the most important thing is that we win and make it to the final.”