Final Four Del Monte® Coppa Italia: Bologna hosts once again Italy’s volleyball elite!

Bologna is once again in the spotlight as the Final Four Del Monte® Coppa Italia SuperLega heads to the Unipol Arena this weekend, 7/8 February 2026.
The venue will stage the Final Four for the eighth time, welcoming four of the top teams of the season for a weekend of high-level volleyball.
In recent years, the Unipol Arena has often hosted the Italian Cup Final Four: this weekend’s event will be the eighth edition held at this venue, which has already been protagonist in 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2024, and 2025. Trentino Volley is the only club to have participated in all seven previous editions and has played in the Final on two occasions: in 2017 against Civitanova and in 2022 against Perugia, losing 1-3 on both games!

Saturday features two do-or-die semifinals, with the opening match which sees winter champions Itas Trentino take on Gas Sales Bluenergy Piacenza at 15:30 Local Time.
The first one team will play as the number one team in the standings thanks to the winter title won on December 14 at the end of the first half of the season with a 3-2 victory over the same Piacenza.
However, the first part of the return leg, also affected by Alessandro Michieletto’s absence in the last two regular season games due a back injury, saw them slip to third place, three points behind the team above them (Rana Verona) and three points ahead of the teams behind them (Valsa Group Modena and Piacenza).

“The Italian Cup Final Four is one of the most important and exciting moments of the season, and for me it’s even more special because it will be the first time I can experience it as a participant after watching so many times as a spectator,” said coach Marcelo Mendez. “It will be a weekend of top-level competition, in which we will try to play our cards right, knowing full well that we will face fierce and highly skilled opponents along the way. Obviously, we are only looking ahead to Saturday’s semifinal against Piacenza, a team that has found increasing rhythm during the regular season and plays beautiful and effective volleyball, regardless of the lineup. We will try to do the same; we will take to the court in Bologna, highly motivated and pumped up, to try to secure a place in the first final of the season. We have the physical, technical, and mental qualities to make the most of this weekend, regardless of the starting six we field.”

Gas Sales Bluenergy Piacenza, on the other hand, returns to the spotlight of the Italian Cup Final Four (which it won in Bologna in 2014 and Rome in 2023) after a year’s absence.
The 3-1 home win against Modena in the quarterfinals has once again opened the doors to the event for the team, which has only played two matches at the Unipol Arena in club’s history (the 2017 and 2022 Italian Cup semifinals), losing both (2-3 to Civitanova and 1-3 to Piacenza).
The team coached by Dante Boninfante, one of many former players, arrives at the event further galvanized by its good form: immediately after securing their place in Casalecchio di Reno, they won five of their next six matches, losing only in a tiebreaker in Modena.
This has seen them climb to fourth place in the standings (with the same number of points of Modena) and they are only three points behind Trento in third.
On this occasion, it will have to do without Simon and Galassi (the young Frenchman Iyegbekedo has been signed to make up for their absence), but it can count on the sixth-best scorer (Alessandro Bovolenta, 276 points) and third-best ace maker (Efe Mandiraci, 40 points from serves) in Superlega.

The second semifinal follows at 18:00 Local Time, with Rana Verona facing Sir Susa Scai Perugia.
The two faced each other 44 times counting all official games, 35 of them won by Perugia, 9 by Verona.
The last direct clash was on first leg of ongoing 2025/26 season, played on Sunday, November 16 at Perugia’s Palabarton valid for Round 5. It was a never-ending game lasted 2 hours and 16 minutes won at tie break by the visiting side, 12-15 in the decider.
Perugia came to Unipol Arena after an intense January, with 4 midweek games in as many weeks, to play their 11th Final Four in club’s history, after 21 victories in a row counting all competitions (Superlega, Pool Stage of 2025/26 CEV Champions League, and Coppa Italia Quarterfinal, in which they eliminated Cucine Lube Civitanova).
Rana Verona, author of a great season and currently at second place at -5 from Perugia and +3 from Trento, on the other hand, arrived to final four after a heavy home defeat achieved last Sunday against a Civitanova who closed the contest in just three sets.

The Coppa Italia final will be played on Sunday at 18:00 UTC, with live coverage on VBTV. This is official program:

Saturday, 7 February 2026 – Semifinals
• 15.30 (Local Time) | Itas Trentino vs Gas Sales Bluenergy Piacenza – Live on Rai Play & VBTV
• 18.00 (Local Time) | Rana Verona vs Sir Susa Scai Perugia – Live on Rai Sport & VBTV

Sunday, 8 February 2026 – Final
• 18.00 (Local Time) | Live on Rai Sport & VBTV

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