Today, at 7:00 p.m., a major international volleyball event stops at the PalaPirastu in Cagliari. The European champions and vice-World champions of Itas Trentino and the Portuguese of Benfica face each other in the return leg of the eighth finals of the Cev Cup, in an extraordinary event organized by the Regional Committee Fipav Sardinia and Trentino Volley, with the contribution of the Tourism Department of the Sardinia Region. A match that will also be broadcast live on TV on Videolina: link from 6:55 p.m., commentary by Andrea Sechi and Roberto Meriggioli .

The match will be played in Cagliari and not at the IlT quotidiano Arena, with the aim of promoting volleyball on the Island: an opportunity to export international volleyball to a land that practices and follows this sport with passion. The first leg was played in Portugal on December 4, with Alessandro Michieletto and his teammates triumphing 0-3 in Lisbon (20-25, 23-25, 19-25) . The yellow and blues of Itas Trentino will only need to win two sets to advance to the play-off round. They can also lose at the tie break, to avoid the possibility of a golden set.

Trentino Itas arrives in Cagliari directly from Brazil where it played the Club World Cup winning the silver medal and will remain on the island until Saturday morning , before moving on to Puglia where on Sunday 22 December it will be playing in Taranto for the thirteenth day of the SuperLega. The return to Trento is scheduled for dawn on 23 December, after fifteen days away from home. Benfica has been the leader of the Primera Divisão for five years: coach Marcel Matz can count on a few names in the squad that are already known to Italian volleyball fans, such as the Brazilian opposite hitter Banderò (Vibo Valentia, Corigliano and Civita Castellana) and the Austrian middle blocker Wohlfahrtstätter (formerly from Vienna).

" Sardinia is a region that is hungry for volleyball and Trento is one of the best Italian and world teams, just second in the World Championships ," Eliseo Secci, president of the Regional Committee Fipav Sardinia, reported yesterday in the presentation held at the Department of Tourism. "Thanks to the Department that hosts us and that helped us organize. I hope that there will be better and more capacious facilities to host large events."

Fabio Soli, coach of Itas Trentino, added: «It's a delicate moment but we're happy to experience this event here because you're making us feel at home . We come from a world championship final that we wanted to end in a different way and diving right back into an important match is the best way to reset. We have the will to compete in an important match and this is it. We won 0-3 in a beautiful way in the first leg but we don't underestimate Benfica who has a very good club and team; we'll have to be good at going and getting this result and we want to go on the field with the memory of the silver to have even more determination inside us. More than taking a breather we need to find our rhythm and a more continuous game. Our goal is to immediately win the sets we need to qualify».

(Unioneonline/r.sp.)

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