The first leg of Italy’s SuperLega Credem Banca best-of-five quarterfinal playoffs on Wednesday brought in a lot of excitement and now it is time for more as the second leg takes place on Sunday. Two of the favourites lived up to the expectations and won their home openers and now is the best moment for their opponents, placed lower in the final regular season standings, to show their worth and capitalize on the home-court advantage they have in the second leg. In the other two match-ups, the visiting teams broke the seeding with away upsets, thus raising the anticipation of how their rivals will react on the road.
Superlega 2023
Mercury rising with second leg of SuperLega quarterfinals coming up
Watch the quarterfinals of Italian SuperLega matches live on VBTV
Published 09:39, 08 Mar 2024
“It will be another match on Sunday and we will try to do better in many aspects. We will do the best we can. We want to express our best volleyball. Trento are the favourites in this series. The difference in ranking speaks for itself. But the play-offs are, in fact, a new championship, we need to try to erase what didn't happen in the regular season and start again. Every match is fundamental.” Alberto Giuliani, head coach of Valsa Group Modena
“The last two matches played against Civitanova before the playoffs (both in Monza) were also hard-fought and exciting, so we expect it to continue to be like this. It is true that another tournament begins with the playoffs, but it is important to have awareness of one's qualities and the appropriate attitude for what awaits us.” Massimo Eccheli, head coach of Mint Vero Volley Monza
“These playoffs are the only objective we have left for the season. In the regular season we suffered twice against Piacenza, while in the Italy Cup it went well for us. Piacenza are a very strong team and we must try to be strong too.” Osniel Mergarejo, outside hitter of Allianz Milan
“Perugia are the team that can win the championship more than anyone else. Given how the season has developed, we have nothing to lose. We must try to be more relaxed on the court and seize every little opportunity that presents itself. Anything can happen and the only thing I want to avoid is someone entering the court already defeated. I won't allow this.” Radostin Stoytchev, head coach of Rana Verona