Bologna, 24 January 2025

2025 Del Monte® Coppa Italia final four is starting in Bologna

The 2025 Del Monte® Coppa Italia Men's Final Four begins on Saturday, January 25 at the Unipol Arena in Casalecchio di Reno (Bologna). Itas Trentino will compete in the second semifinal, facing Cucine Lube Civitanova, with the starting time scheduled for 6:30 PM. The match will be broadcasted live on RAI Sport, Radio Dolomiti, and streaming on the OTT platform VBTV.
HERE ITAS TRENTINO The yellow-blue team enters Emilia boasting four victories in as many matches played in 2025, maintaining an unbeaten streak for over a month (since December 19, a non-impactful 2-3 loss in Cagliari against Benfica in the second leg of the CEV Cup round of 16). This impressive record has put them in sight of first place in the SuperLega standings, now just two points behind Perugia. To reach another final this season, potentially their third after the Supercoppa and World Championship, they must perform consistently in this knockout match.
"The match against Civitanova on Saturday is like a final for us, comparable to the final the day after between the semifinal winners," said coach Fabio Soli. "We expect a match with high emotional and technical content because we'll face a team currently in excellent form, capable of producing excellent numbers in all fundamentals. We want to play the match in Bologna expressing our best selves."
Having arrived in Bologna late this morning, the team will hold a 90-minute training session at the Unipol Arena in the early evening; a useful opportunity to familiarize themselves with the large structure and further test their condition. Itas Trentino will be at full strength, with Jan Kozamernik among those available, even though he's not yet at his best. Saturday's match will be the 1,074th official game in Trentino Volley's men's history (record: 749 wins and 324 losses), the 583rd to be played away, where they've already won fourteen times this season (including two instances in Emilia: in Piacenza and Modena). Alessandro Michieletto, with 11 appearances, is the player with the most Italian Cup matches for Trentino Volley. For Kamil Rychlicki, this will be his sixth Italian Cup Final Four; he has a personal and encouraging record in Casalecchio di Reno, winning three of the last four editions he personally played here; in 2020 and 2021 with Civitanova, in 2022 with Perugia.
TRENTINO VOLLEY’S HISTORY IN COPPA ITALIA This is the eve of Trentino Volley's eighteenth Italian Cup Final Four; they've participated in the competition 23 times overall, winning it in 2010 by defeating Modena in the semifinal (3-0) and then Cuneo (3-1 on January 31 in Montecatini), and interestingly twice in the calendar year 2012: the 2011/12 edition in Rome, overcoming Belluno (3-0) and Macerata (3-2) on February 18 and 19, and the 2012/2013 edition at the Assago Forum, defeating Vibo Valentia (3-0) and Macerata (3-1) on December 29 and 30. On other occasions, the yellow-blue team's adventure ended in three cases at the hands of Cuneo with three 3-0 losses (on February 2, 2002 at the Assago Forum, on January 28, 2006 at the PalaFiera in Forlì in the semifinal, on January 23, 2011 at the PalaOlimpia in Verona in the final), once against Piacenza (1-3 on March 8, 2014 at the PalaDozza in Bologna in the semifinal), in 2014 and 2015 (January 11, 2015 and February 7, 2016) against Modena in the final, in 2017 against Civitanova in the final, in 2018 in the semifinal against Perugia in Bari (January 27, 2018), in 2019 and 2020 again by Lube in the semifinal (2-3, February 9, 2019 and February 22, 2021), in 2021 in the semifinal against Perugia (0-3, January 30, 2021), in 2022 once again against the Umbrians but this time in the final (1-3, March 6, 2022), in 2023 in the final against Piacenza (February 26, 2023), and most recently in the semifinal against Monza (January 27). In the Italian Cup, Trentino Volley has played a total of 52 matches, winning 30, including the last one (December 29, 3-1 at home against Cisterna). The player with the most appearances in this competition for Trentino is Kaziyski with 23; Pesaresi (1), Rychlicki (3), and Flavio (1) are the only players on the current roster who have already won the trophy.
CASALECCHIO DI RENO FOR THE NINTH TIME The Unipol Arena has often hosted the Italian Cup Final Four in recent years: this weekend will mark the seventh edition held in this venue, which previously hosted the event in 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2024. Trentino Volley is the only team that has participated in all six previous events and has played in two finals: in 2017 against Civitanova and in 2022 against Perugia, losing both times 1-3. In this functional structure in Felsinea, Trentino Volley has played a total of nine matches, including the 2010 V-Day (lost in four sets against Cuneo), winning only twice. Bologna also hosted the Final Four in 2014 and 2015, but those matches were played at the PalaDozza, where the yellow-blue team reached the final in the second edition (losing to Modena once again in four sets).
THE OPPONENTS Cucine Lube Civitanova returns to the Italian Cup Final Four (in which they have participated 18 times, winning the trophy seven times) after three years of absence. The tie-break victory at the Eurosuole Forum on December 29 against Milan in the quarterfinals has reopened the doors to the event for the red and white team, which has a privileged relationship with the Unipol Arena, having triumphed in this venue in the recent 2017, 2020, and 2021 editions. Coach Giampaolo Medei's team arrives at the event further boosted by good form: after finishing fourth at the Club World Championship in Uberlandia, they have won seven of the eight matches played, losing only in the tie-break in the league against Monza. This has strengthened their third place in the standings, further securing their home court, where they remain undefeated this season (12 wins out of 12 matches), and just last Sunday they defeated the league leaders Perugia 3-1. Besides standout players like Lagumdzija (third top scorer in the league and eighth overall), Balaso, and former Podrascanin, they can rely on the most effective block in the category, averaging 2.47 points per set.
THE PROGRAM OF THE FINAL FOUR On Saturday the 25th of January the semifinals will be played; before Trento-Civitanova, at 4.15 p.m., Perugia and Verona will duke it out. The next day, Sunday the 26th of January, the grand finals between the two victors are scheduled at 3.15 p.m. and transmitted directly on RAI 2.
THE BACKGROUND The semi-final will be a match that has already been played on eight occasions in single competitions. The precedents between Trentino Volley and Cucine Lube Civitanova in the Italian Cup have a long history, starting as far back as the 2003 edition (quarterfinals played in Bolzano) and have unfolded over another quarterfinal (2006), three semifinals (2016, 2019 and 2020 - the last two in Bologna as well), and three finals (2012, 2013, 2017). The report referred to this competition alone sees Trentino Volley as the victor in four different cases. The total computation speaks of one-hundred-one precedents instead; the Club in the Marches is the most competed against during the course of the twenty-five years of yellow-blue history, with forty six victories for Trentino. Among all the matches, twenty-seven are related to a semi-final match, divided into five different competitions: 17 in the Playoffs, 2 in the Italian Supercoppa, 4 in Champions League, 1 in the Club World Cup, and 3 in the Italian Cup: eleven yellow-blue victories, sixteen from the Marches. Two matches have already been played last season: first of December in Civitanova Marche (3-1 for Lube) and 14th of December in Uberlandia (3-0 for Trento).
THE REFEREES Fipav has designated the six referees who will watch over the semifinals and finals; however, without making the composition of the pairs in the single matches known. The selected referees are Gianluca Cappello (Sortino), Stefano Cesare (Rome), Mauro Goitre (Turin), Rossella Piana (Carpi), Andrea Puecher (Padua), and Armando Simbari (Milan). All of them have at least one seasonal precedent unlike Trentino Volley.
TV, RADIO, AND INTERNET The match will be a global media event, being directed live on TV, radio and internet all at the same time. On the small screen it will be broadcasted by RAI Sport HD, digital terrestrial channel number 58, with live streaming in parallel also on the app "RAI Play".
Live news is expected on Radio Dolomiti, media partner of Trentino Volley. Frequencies to listen to the digital network are available on www.radiodolomiti.com, where it will also be possible to follow the commentary on live streaming.
The live streaming video on the OTT platform "VBTV" is also confirmed; the service is paid. For more information on the use of the platform, please refer to https://it.volleyballworld.com/volleyball-tv-it.
A summary will go live on tv on the 27th of January at 9.40 p.m. on RTTR - media partner of Trentino Volley.
On the internet, point by point updates will be taken care of by the website of the A Series League Volleyball (Lega Pallavolo Serie A; www.legavolley.it) and from www.trentinovolley.it, and will always be active on the yellow-blue social medias (www.trentinovolley.it/facebook, www.trentinovolley.it/instagram and www.trentinovolley.it/twitter).

Trentino Volley Srl
Press Office