Italy
This result brings the guys around head coach Marco Bonitta back on track after the major disappointment resulting from their 2:3 defeat to Poland on Monday where they had not capitalized on a two-set lead.
The game starring these sides was very much likely to have a huge impact on the final standings of the group. Belgium was the sole team with three wins in as many matches so far while Italy had lost a great opportunity on Monday by dissipating a 2-0 lead to eventually lose at the tie-break to the hosts of Poland. The young “Azzurri” opened splendidly (10:5) imposing their pace, by working well also with their middle blockers, while Belgium looked a little faulty for the first time since the start of the tournament. Italy kept a margin of three also by the second technical time-out; in comparison with the previous matches setter Marco Izzo was searching more often for the middle-blockers and Belgium struggled to find the right response to the great intensity and aggressiveness displayed by the Italians (19:13). Italy reigned supreme in almost all fundamentals and the provisional 1:0 was soon registered via another spike from the middle by Fabio Ricci (25-17).
The course of the game did not change in the opening of set 2 with Belgian coach Steven Vanmedegael stopping the match at 6:3 for Italy, trying to shake his guys and to find a way to stop that storm they were apparently not able to stand. However, Italy pushed it hard and by profiting of the mistakes committed by their opponents, combined with some clever play, their advantage got bigger and bigger (19:14). Probably along with their opening match of the tournament where they had downed Russia in straight sets, the Italians were playing their best game so far in Gdynia, showing great consistency in all aspects of the game and another Belgian error, this time by Francois Lecat, sealed the final 25-19 for Italy.
After two relatively easy sets, Italy suffered a short black-out in the early phases of the third set, going down 2:6, but coach Bonitta – evidently furious – found the right words to fire his guys, as they quickly fought their way back to 7 all and they even cruised to the front at the first technical break (8:7). The score remained very tight up to the second mandatory stop before Italy found some holes in the Belgian defense line to break away (20:18) and their redemption for the defeat suffered to Poland two days ago was finally there via a terrific crosscourt by Simmaco Tartaglione (25-23).
