Piacenza - Perugia

Italy - Coppa Italia Superlega, Semifinal

On February 25th, the Italian Cup semi-finals will take place, with Milan and Trento on one side and Piacenza and Perugia on the other.

With the return to the field of Lucarelli and Leal, the Piacenza team had found their balance and made a difference with significant percentages in both attack and blocking, as well as serving. With those numbers, they could have even played the match against teams of the caliber of Perugia.

Unfortunately, in the last league match against Lube, in the fourth set, one of coach Botti's key players, Leal, was injured in the ankle, and Recine was unable to replace the Cuban, neither in reception nor in attack, closing the fourth and fifth set with 17% in attack and 38% in reception. This allowed the Civitanova team from the Marche region to mark Lucarelli and Romanò more effectively, lowering both players' percentages and taking the fourth and fifth set.

With one less attacker, as Leal will surely not recover, I don't think Brizard will be able to easily outsmart the Perugian block, which is currently the second team with the most blocks made after Trento and the most efficient in blocks executed per set.

I don't think that Piacenza, in these conditions, can win more than one set against the Perugian army, which comes from 33 consecutive victories and is currently considered the super favorite to win everything this year.