Coppa Italia, the pass to the Final Four is up for grabs. Lube, no jokes against Milan today

No mistakes allowed. The last match of 2024 is one of the crucial ones for the young Lube's season, at 18 pm at the Eurosuole Forum against Allianz Milano the do-or-die challenge will be played that puts the Coppa Italia Final Four up for grabs. An important event, not only for the trophy that can be lifted, but because historically that weekend - this time on January 25 and 26 at the Unipol Arena in Bologna - attracts thousands of fans and is a super showcase on a media-commercial level. In addition, Civitanova has been missing the final act since 2021 and after 3 eliminations in a row, always in the quarterfinals and playing at home, it cannot exit the competition early again. They will have to break this taboo against Allianz, who knocked them out twice, in December 2021 and the following year, always with a 1-3 blitz (twelve months ago Monza was the executioner) and who they faced for the Super League just last Sunday, annihilating them with a decisive 3-0. After that success, however, the red and whites fell badly in Monza 3-2 and today they will be under pressure, even more following the harsh words of DG Cormio who spoke of "confidence running out" and of "changing gear if you want to stay". Cormio did not name names but the impression is that he was referring primarily to Nikolov, Bottolo and perhaps Lagumdzija since he specified that some athletes disappear in the final stages of sets. We will see what choices coach Medei will make, on the 26th for example he started with Loeppky who had been MVP against Milan but then failed in Monza. The hope of the fans and the club is that the home stadium will prove to be an impregnable fortress once again, in fact Lube has always won there so far. Civitanova has gained the advantage of the home field factor having closed the first half of the season in 3rd place while Piazza's team was sixth, furthermore it should be remembered that a week ago they were able to knock out the Milanese even without Nikolov, Dirlic and Chinenyeze, the latter two former players like Larizza on the other side. However, this is a match with a different tension, inside/outside and we will have to see how the team will react to Cormio's dressing down. Not only that, we are certain that Milan (revolutionized in the summer, eight new faces) will not be as bad as Sunday when they suffered 12 blocks and will not be flat, indeed they will have a completely different temperament if we know their coach well. Allianz is also coming off a stop, the 2nd in a row for Piano (last year of the captain, then he will retire) and teammates, 3-0 in Trento. An away game that saw libero Catania in huge difficulty in reception, bomber Reggers also bad and so the eternal Kaziyski was not enough.

Andrea Scoppa