Italian Supercoppa at stake this weekend

The season’s first big trophy in Italian men’s volleyball domestic competitions will find its winner this weekend as the two semifinals and the final of the Del Monte Supercoppa 2021 take place over two days at the Eurosuole Forum in Civitanova Marche, with all the action available live and on demand on VolleyballWorld.tv.

Tournament hosts Cucine Lube Civitanova will take to the court at 15:15 local time on Saturday to face Vero Volley Monza in the first of two semifinals.

2021 national champions and national cup holders Lube have won the Supercoppa trophy four times, but the last time they did so was as far back as 2014. Last year they reached the final, but lost to Sir Safety Conad Perugia after an extended tie-breaker. The reigning club world champions started the regular season in the SuperLega Credem Banca with a 3-0 away win over Kioene Padova, but then lost at home to Gas Sales Bluenergy Piacenza in five sets.

“I remember the embrace with the fans outside the Eurosuole, with the championship trophy in hand,” Lube’s captain Osmany Juantorena said at Thursday’s official presentation of the Supercoppa trophy in Ancona. “Luckily the fans are back. My club and I need them. I miss the Supercup among my achievements. Indeed, everyone wants to win it in the end. The goal is to win the final on Sunday, but let's not forget that first we have a complex game to win on Saturday.”

Vero Volley Monza are coming into the tournament as the fourth-placed team in the last SuperLega season. They are aiming at their first ever podium in any of the three national competitions in Italy. Similar to Lube, they started the 2021-2022 league season with a win and a loss, a 3-1 victory over Leo Shoes PerkinElmer Modena at home and a five-set defeat at Allianz Milano.

Saturday’s second semifinal is set to start at 18:00 local time featuring the squads of Sir Safety Conad Perugia and Itas Trentino Trento. The two clubs are the current leaders in the SuperLega standings, and the only two teams to have snatched the full six points in the first two legs of the regular season.

The club from Perugia won the last two editions of the Supercoppa, in 2020 and 2019, adding to their first success in 2017. Last season, they also reached the national championship final and the national cup final, losing both to Lube. In the CEV Champions League, Sir Safety made it to the semifinals, where they were knocked out by Trentino. So far this SuperLega season, they have shut out Top Volley Cisterna at home and took a 3-1 victory at Verona Volley.

“We are in good condition. It takes time to reach optimal form, but we have many experienced players in the squad and everyone knows perfectly well what to do on the court at the moment. We will try to put all the work we are doing every day in training on the court,” Perugia’s captain Wilfredo Leon said. “Trentino are a top-level team with many strengths, spikers who can kill the high balls, great servers and very good receivers... I think all four teams have different strengths, but we must find the weaknesses of our opponents.”

Trentino will be looking for their third Supercup trophy after victories in 2011 and 2013. They played in the semifinals of last year’s edition, but lost their series to Lube in the golden set, after exchanging two five-set victories. They also lost their championship semifinal series to Lube to finish with bronze, and the cup semifinal to Sir Safety, but reached the final of the Champions League, where they lost to Poland’s ZAKSA Kedzierzyn-Kozle. Earlier this month, the team from Trento mastered a clean-slate home win over Verona Volley and a four-set away victory at Tonno Callipo Calabria Vibo Valentia to top the current table.

The winners of the two semifinals will battle it out for the trophy on Sunday at 16:00 local time.

• Watch all the matches of the Italian men's and women's domestic competitions, live or on demand, on VolleyballWorld.tv.

• Get all the results, statistics, schedules and more on the official website of the Italian men's league.