The Volleyball Superleague gave itself two semifinals that weren’t even a hypothesis

The quarter-finals of Superlega 2023 have ended and the results of the challenges have revolutionized both the draw and the balances which were, at this point, only a hypothesis. In the semi-finals, which will start on Thursday, Itas Trentino and Gas Sales Piacenza on one side, Lube Civitanova and Allianz Milano on the otherall protagonists of challenges drawn more than the ranking of regular season could suggest.

Itas Trentino actually concluded against Monza the match that turned out to be the shortest and most predictable among those on the draw, winning game four away, and losing game two 3-1 with three absences in the starting sextet due to an intestinal virus . Itas, among the remaining formations, is the one that can rely on more certainties in its game and in its protagonistshaving already played (but lost) the world final against Sir Safety Perugia and the Coppa Italia final against Gas Sales Piacenza, and the scudetto is the last remaining goal, since they were eliminated in the golden set in the Champions League by Zaksa, finalist, in the quarterfinals.

The other challenges of the quarter-finals, on the other hand, continued until game five and had an outcome that was anything but predictable both in the case in which the winner was theunderdogas in the extraordinary case of Allianz Milano against Sir Safety Perugia, and in the case in which the winner was the Italian champion of the last three championships played, as in the case of Lube against Verona Volley, and again when the match is a very balanced Emilia derby between Modena and Piacenza.

La Lube won game five by 3 sets to 0, overturning the challenge that Verona had dominated in game one and won on the tie break in game two. Gianlorenzo Blengini was very happy above all for the team’s mental reaction, even from the younger players who “have known how to fight, despite the fact that under pressure they may not have enough technical solidity”, said the coach.

Civitanova will find Allianz Milano who eliminated Sir Safety Perugia and conquered the semi-final of the Superlega championship for the first time in their history. Roberto Piazza’s team took advantage of Allianz Cloud’s home advantage in game two and game four, both won in the tie break, while they won 3-1 in game 5 at the Pala Barton in Perugia. This was the challenge with the most obvious outcome, which instead offered the most surprising result, considering the extraordinary results of SIR so far, despite Giannelli and co. were facing a noticeable decline. The Umbrian president Gino Sirci, after the elimination from the Champions League in the semi-final against Zaksa, spoke to the microphones of Tgr Umbria of the involution that his team was having in this period compared to the first part of the season: “We lack all our certainties” he said, adding that “I hope the coach (Andrea Anastasi) will justify it to me, because it’s a team in disarray”.

Milan, eighth in the regular season, took advantage of it and was cynical, over the course of the 5 matches it transformed from a team that has nothing to lose and therefore plays it without fear, to a team aware of being able to win without reverential fears towards of world champions. The transition from one to the other usually creates pressure, especially if the team relies on a young director like Paolo Porro, who was born in 2001, while Milan has combined the ruthlessness of a team that doesn’t lose, however it goes, because you play the beautiful with the “strongest” team in the championship (with all the limitations that such a definition has had), to the determination of a team that has conquered and does not want to lose such a prestigious challenge. Roberto Piazza to Rai microphones said that the victory at the Pala Barton is the daughter of the defeat in match three, where Milan was ahead 1-0 and led the second set 21-16, but lost 3-1 because “we weren’t killers” , his words, “but we scared them and they really had to play”. Milan in the wake of this feat will face a rediscovered and reorganized Lube, still underdog, but presumably no longer underestimated.

Gas Sales Piacenza will face Itas Trentino, after having, like Civitanova, recovered the 2-0 deficit that Modena, which in the meantime won the Cev Cup in the golden set against Tomabel Hal in Roeselare, had conquered after the first meetings. The Piacenza side have already surprised this year by winning the Italian Cup in the final against Trento and can field the best formation at the right moment of the season. In addition, coach Massimo Botti wanted to underline at the end of the game, they have “the ability to find resources when they are not there to get out of the quagmire”.

The series of the quarter-finals of this Superlega have already shown more than we expected to see, perhaps proving Maurizio Colantoni, Rai’s volleyball commentator, right, who likes to repeat in connection that the Italian one is the most beautiful championship of the world, where (again) Davide Milano who beat Goliath Perugia will face Civitanova who clings to the last branch before falling into the ravine, and where the three forwards of the world champion Italian national team will face each other in the other semifinal which is worth the Scudetto.