Poland Youth
The first set was by far the most interesting one. There were several changes in the lead and the gap never exceeded 3 points in favor of Italy and 2 points in favor of Poland. The Polish block contributed as many as 5 points to the eventual success in the set, but it was Pawel Gryc’s brilliant ace that closed it off at 28-26 Poland’s way.
Italy stormed into the second set with a 3-0 run, but its lead did not last very long. Poland caught up at 5-5 and a little later established control over the rest of the set. Better serving was one of its advantages in this set, and it was once again an ace for the final point, this time by Artur Szalpuk, that finished it off at 25-21.
Setter Krzysztof Bienkowski nicely spread out the Polish attacks in the third set as his team completely dominated on court to pile up a huge gap and win the set by a convincing 25-16.
Sebastian Pawlik, assistant coach of Poland: “We did not play as well as we did yesterday, but we are very happy that we won this game since it was very important for us. We only need one more game to go to the semi finals.”
Bartosz Bucko, captain of Poland: “This was a great game both of the Italian and Polish team. We have three victories so far, and we are waiting for Russia.”
Andrea Tomasini, head coach of Italy: “We missed a great opportunity to win the first set. It is not going to be easy for Italy to go to the next round.”
Sebastiano Milan, captain of Italy: “Poland has a really good team. They attacked well and had good defense. All the compliments for the Polish team!”
Poland vs. Italy 3:0 (28:26, 25:21, 25:16)
To read more news from this competition click on Youth European Championship 2013 M.
