In front of a sold-out crowd at the Sports Palace in Rome, the world ranking leaders and the holders of the League of Nations defeated the Transalpines flawlessly with scores of 25-20, 25-21 and 25-23. revenge’ of the 2022 World Cup decision defeat.
Daniele Lavia and Wilfredo León Venero were the top scorers, scoring 13 points for each team, in a match where the Poles’ pressure on their serve held the hosts back, producing 11 accurate ‘shots’, against just three goals conceded.
Repeating their 2009 success in their seventh appearance in the final, Poland equaled Russia and Serbia for fourth place in the European Men’s Volleyball Championship table, all with two trophies, against Italy’s seven, who are five behind the record holder Union Soviet Union. and had won their last continental (2021) and world (2022) scepters on Polish soil.
Hours earlier, also in Rome, Slovenia, the defeated finalist in 2015, 2019 and 2021 won the bronze medal match against France, winner in 2015 and current Olympic champion, 3-2, with scores of 25-22, 25-16 , 21-25, 18-25 and 15-11.
Four unanswered points translated into a resounding submission from Poland, which still allowed Italy to get a little closer (4-6 and 5-7), but managed to take advantage of direct services and force errors in the opponent’s reception to finish as to emerge victorious from the opening. sets (25-20).
The alternation of markers revealed a greater balance in the next part, again controlled by the Poles, who punished the transalpine inability to extend their tangential superiority with six consecutive points (20-15) and closed at 25-21.
Italy was not allowed to fail in the third set, raising its level and experiencing its best moments until 10-6, before losing momentum with successive draws and even allowing the comeback (17-18) through Norbert Huber’s fifth ‘ace’. 12 points.
Poland completely neutralized the home advantage of the Azzurri, who had almost 11,000 tifosi in the stands, and sealed the second European title in their history after one hour and 39 minutes, thanks to Aleksander Sliwka’s precise side-out (25-23). ).
Game at the Sports Palace in Rome, Italy.
Italy – Poland, 0-3.
Splits: 20-25 (31 minutes), 21-25 (32) and 23-25 (36).
Under arbitration by the Turkish Ozan Cagi Sarikaya and the Greek Vasileios Vasileiadis, the teams lined up:
– Italy: Daniele Lavia, Yuri Romanò, Roberto Russo, Fabio Balaso (libero), Gianluca Galassi, Simone Giannelli and Alessandro Michieletto. Riccardo Sbertoli, Leonardo Scanferla (libero) and Tommaso Rinaldi also played.
Coach: Ferdinando De Giorgi.
– Poland: Wilfredo León Venero, Lukasz Kaczmarek, Norbert Huber, Pawel Zatorski (libero), Jakub Kochanowski, Marcin Janusz and Aleksander Sliwka. Kamil Semeniuk and Tomasz Fornal also played.
Coach: Nikola Grbic.
Spectators: approximately 11,000 spectators.
Source: DN
