Italy’s debut at the 2022 FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship in Poland and Slovenia was successful. So was Serbia’s.
Italy’s adventure in the World Champs 2022 began in the best possible way. Ferdinando De Giorgi’s wards outplayed Canada on their debut in Pool E in Ljubljana 3-0, with the result in sets of 25-13, 25-18, and 39-37. The third set, as obvious, brought the most uncertainty to the match. It took the reigning European champions as many as 12 set points to prevail.
The performance of Daniele Lavia should be pointed out as he put down 18 points for Italy. He incorporated 4 blocks in his output, just like his teammate Gianluca Galassi. Ryan Sclater scored 12 points for Canada.
It may sound premature if we say that Serbia had done the largest part of the work in the group stage regarding the progression to the elimination phase given they played only one match in the tournament. However, they beat Ukraine, the toughest rivals on paper in Pool A in Katowice (Poland) in straight sets.
Led by Oleg Plotnytskyi (the match-high 17 points), the national team that replaced disqualified Russia, forced Serbia to play a dramatic finish of the first set and even had two set points. But, after getting out of this awkward situation, Igor Kolaković’s protégés routinely člaimed the next two sets. Uroš Kovačević and Marko Ivović notched 11 points apiece, while Marko Podraščanin served 4 aces on the winning side.
2022 FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship – Preliminary Phase, Day 2:
