Six different winners in the last seven years: in the Italian Cup there are no favorites. But those who raise the trophy hardly celebrates even at the end of the year …
The Italian Cup is a fun and unpredictable tournament, in which all eight participants have concrete chance of victory. Impossible to make predictions. In the last two years, in fact, Naples and Brescia have triumph, qualified respectively as seventh and eighth but capable of overcoming the two powers of our championship in the final: Milan and Bologna. Two victories as important as they are unexpected that make the tournament, scheduled from 12 to 16 February in Turin, always spectacular.
Balance
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If in the last seven years the Scudetto has been won only by three teams – Olimpia, Virtus and Reyer – in the Italian Cup there have been six different winners. Demonstration of how a tournament is in which there are no favorites. In addition to Naples and Brescia, here is Milan (twice), Venice, Cremona and Turin. Widening the discussion to the finalists, Tortona, Pesaro and Brindisi also appear, today in A2. In short, each team can dream of success. The reason is in the different formula of the two competitions. In the playoffs, in a series at the best of the five games, the values of the strongest formation emerge; At the Final Eight, where you face each other in a dry game, everything can happen.
Curse
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Lift the Italian Cup, however, it seems to have a price to pay. The last two winners, in fact, at the end of the year did not qualify for the playoffs: both Naples and Brescia ended the season in ninth place. Same goes for Turin in 2018, winning in February but eleventh in May. In general, in the last seven years – excluding the 2020/21 season that has not ended for Covid – only once the team that won the Final Eight then also celebrated the Scudetto (Milan in 2022).
Coupling
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The possibilities that this year also wins an outsider are high. One between Milan and Bologna, in fact, will come out immediately: the two favorites for the Scudetto will be in front of the first round. The winner will face one between Brescia and Tortona, while on the other side of the scoreboard there are Trento-Reggiana and Trapani-Trieste (both neopromosses). Impossible to make predictions.
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