Serbia
Italy completely prevailed in the first set. With powerful serving and insurmountable blocking, the team of Mauro Berruto was playing cat-and-mouse with the Serbs and eventually won the set with a huge point differential – 25-14.
As if demotivated by the absence of a strong opponent on the other side of the net, the Italians made many unforced errors in the second set. However, they were able to put more focus on their attacks, especially through Michal Lasko, and once again dominated on the court to close the set at 25-19.
Italy maintained a small lead through the second technical time-out of the third set and seemed to be approaching a straight-set victory, when suddenly the Serbs woke up, realizing they had nothing more to lose. Some fantastic serving by Aleksandar Atanasijevic and a great job done by the Serbian block helped the team take over the rest of the set and finish at a 6-point margin.
The perfect ending of set 3, however, was not enough for Igor Kolakovic’s players to regain their confidence and in set 4 they were once again not able to stay in contention. The more experienced Italians took advantage of the many mistakes in Serbia’s performance and had no problems building up a 9-point gap for the final 25-16 in the set.
Ivan Zaytsev was the game’s best scorer with 22 points, with Michal Lasko adding another 19 on Italy’s account. Aleksandar Atanasijevic was the most prolific player of the Serbian team with 15 points.
