Brazil’s Batagim better than Ricci and Partenio
The South Americans won their tough semifinal match against Italy by 3-1 (22-25, 25-18, 25-19, 25-23) to secure their place on the podium.
Brazil seemed to have a tight grip on the first set, but, after 18-15, Italy won three rallies in a row to level the score. Another three-point series after 22-22 finished the set off in Italy’s favour.
Alan Souza showed his scoring skills in the relatively one-sided second set with a 7-point contribution to the eventual 25-18 Brazil’s way.
Italy’s Gabriele Nelli displayed his prolific scoring with 8 points in the third set, but Brazil still dominated, thanks to their blocking performance and the many opponent errors to close the set at 25-19.
Set four was closely contested, developing with a slight advantage for Italy. However, in the conclusive moments Brazil once again showed their superiority to turn things around. It all ended at 25-23 with a brilliant spike by Leandro Santos through the middle, but it was the setter Thiago Veloso who also fell into his team-mates arms for the perfect pass and who did not even try to stop his joyful tears upon the victorious ending of the match.
Alan Souza tallied up 18 points for Brazil to become the best scorer of this game, followed by team-mates Douglas Souza and Henrique Batagim and Italy’s Luigi Randazzo with 16 points each.
See the profiles of Junior national teams of Brazil and Italy.
Also, check out profiles of Alan and Randazzo.
For more news from this competition, click on Junior World Championship 2013 M.
