The Akademia Città di Messina tries to add a new chapter to the book of first times written during a season that saw it forge ahead. After the debut in the Italian Cup complete with passage to the semi-finals and in the Promotion Pool (closed in 3rd place), president Costantino's club is ready to live its first experience in the playoffs for promotion to A1. We start today with the first leg of the semi-final against Cda Talmassons at the “PalaRescifina” (5pm).
The match will be preceded by Dargen D'Amico's showcase, recently protagonist at the Sanremo Festival. Starting off on the right foot would represent the best viaticum with which to approach the return match scheduled three days later in Friuli, where the hosts on the other hand would take to the taraflex forced to win so as not to be eliminated from the playoffs. It is the turn of president Fabrizio Costantino to speak on the eve of a historic appointment for the club and the city of Messina.
«These are the games that everyone would like to play after working an entire season to get there. I congratulate the team and the technical staff who managed this championship so well – says Akademia's top manager -. A result that the company would have liked to build over a three-year period was achieved well in advance, which means that good work was done. But now we are not satisfied and we face these playoffs determined to make a good impression and perhaps reach the final.”
The push that the public transmits plays a fundamental role when it comes to playoffs, especially when the setting is truly worthy of the event. «We expect many fans to come on Sunday to watch the team play. The municipal administration and the sponsors have been very close to us in recent months, but there are also many people who, week after week, are getting closer and closer to volleyball. Perhaps the “PalaRescifina” is so big that you don't notice it but, little by little, its presence in the stands is expanding.”
Returning to the opponent, Talmassons is a tough team who, after having closed the Pool in fourth place with only three points less than Messina, will want to play their cards to get through to the next round. The teams have already met in the group stage, achieving one success each: in the first leg Akademia lost at the tie break, but it was a group still in the testing phase, while in the return match at home they prevailed in three sets. Now we start again from scratch but with the desire to write a new chapter in history.