France
With Aaron Koubi serving, France was able to string 6 consecutive points to overturn the score from 8-10 to 14-8 in the first set and never looked back. The French blocking efforts paid off with 6 points before the offense managed to squeeze the ball between the Italian block and the net for the final 25-21.
The two teams switched their roles for the second set as initially it was the French who were in the lead, but around midway through the set the Italians managed to overtake control. Now the Italian block was almost impenetrable to score as many as 8 points in the set while Tiziano Mazzone was putting on ball after the other on the floor in offense as well. Captain Sebastiano Milan scored only one point in this set, but it was the most important one. His successful block shaped up the final 25-23 to tie the score in the match.
Set 3 saw several changes in the lead before Timothee Carle’s serves gave the Italians some hard time as the score turned from 16-14 Italy’s way to 21-16 in favor of France. Carle was also very prolific in offense and he smashed the ball to finish it off at 25-20.
The fourth set was a real thriller as it boasted frequent changes in the lead and some great defensive action on both sides of the net. At 22-22 it was really anybody’s set, but this ”anybody” as actually the team of Andrea Tomasini. The Italians took the following three rallies as a two-man block by Alberto Polo and Ferdinando Della Volpe closed the set at 25-22.
The tie-breaker was all about France. With Timothee Carle on fire, scoring point after point for his team, Slimane Belmadi’s boys were well on their way to the World Championship as they dominated throughout the set to win it by 15-11 and reserve their seats on the plane to Mexico.
Slimane Belmadi, head coach of France: “We are qualified to play in Mexico and I am very happy for that. It is important for these young players to play against the best teams in the world. We came here to insure our place in the World Championship and that is exactly what we did.”
Andrea Tomasini, head coach of Italy: “The match was really hard and we lost to a good opponent. We did not play that well and it was only natural that we lost.“
Luka Bašić, captain of France: “During the whole match we were concentrated and we played well. Italy has a good team and we were well-prepared. We are happy because we managed to secure our place in the World Championship.“
Sebastiano Milan, captain of Italy: “France has a very good team. Unfortunately, we did not play very well in this time. In the first part of the match our spike was not so bad, but France block was way too good.“
Italy vs. France 2:3 (21-25, 25-23, 20-25, 25-22, 11-15)
To read more news from this competition click on Youth European Championship 2013 M.
Find the full game statiscitcs from this Championship on Statistic.
