Italy
Italian star Anastasia Guerra scored 19 points for Italy whilst on Greece’s side captain Olga Strantzali booked 14 kills for her side.
Italy led 16-13 at the second technical break of the first set, before the team of Greek head coach Dimitrios Floros recorded six points in a row to turn the tables. Nevertheless, the “squadra azzurra” was already experienced enough to stay tranquil in such challenging situation. After 24 minutes, Guerra and her teammates ended the set 25-21 in Italy’s favor.
Greece didn’t let loose in the second set. The young Greek talents even led 13-8, but couldn’t conclude. Things didn’t change essentially in the third period with Italy displaying powerful attacks and a very strong block-defense organization. A service mistake of captain Strantzali crashed the Greek dreams for a possible comeback.
Greece coach Dimitrios Floros: “Italy is a very strong team. They won because they played better than we did. We were close sometimes, but committed too many mistakes in crucial situations.”
Greece captain Olga Strantzali: “Even though we lost, we played very well. The main problem was our reception, but we hope we will improve it for the next match. The next match we’ll play with Montenegro. In a match that was last summer we won Montenegro, and we hope it will happen again.”
Italy coach Luca Pieragnoli: “We are very happy because it is always very hard to play the first match of a tournament, especially if it is the European Championship.”
Italy captain Ofelia Malinov: “Since this was our first match in the tournament, we were afraid we would not show what we know. At the beginning we were maybe a little bit confused but during the match everything worked well.”
To read more news from this competition click on Youth European Championship 2013 F.
