Italy better than Poland

Zurich’s EuroVolley 2013 quarterfinals will feature Belgium versus France and Serbia against Italy. In Tuesday’s playoff round, world No. 4 Italy proved too strong for Poland (25-22, 25-22, 25-13) while France overcame the Czech Republic after an outstanding comeback (20-25, 9-25, 25-23, 25-23, 20-18).

Zurich’s EuroVolley 2013 quarterfinals will feature Belgium versus France and Serbia against Italy. In Tuesday’s playoff round, world No. 4 Italy proved too strong for Poland (25-22, 25-22, 25-13) while France overcame the Czech Republic after an outstanding comeback (20-25, 9-25, 25-23, 25-23, 20-18).

The Italians answered the critics of their home press with a straight-set win (25-22, 25-22, 25-13) over Poland at 2013 CEV Volleyball European Championship – Women. The Polish squad could not deal with Italy’s power and organization, thus never finding their way into the game. Italy’s Valentina Diouf and Valentina Costagrande scored 15 points each while Maja Tokarska booked 10 kills for Poland.

After their pool defeat versus Belgium, Italy felt a lot of pressure for today’s playoff match versus Poland. There was nothing to separate the two teams early in the much-awaited duel. The Azzurre led 8-6 at the first technical timeout. Wing-spiker Carolina Costagrande hammered the Mikasa down from back-row to make it 14-8 for Italy. As their reception became better, Poland shortened the deficit to two points at 21-23. However, it was not good enough. Italy proved their coolness and experience, closing out the first set 25-22 in their favour. 

It seemed as Piotr Makowski found the right words between the two sets. The young Polish team jumped out for an 8-4 lead. Nevertheless, Italy came back into the game after a clear speech by head coach Marco Mencarelli. Poland struggled with their reception and consequently the wing spikers could not put enough pressure on the opponent’s defence. Makowski tried to wake up his players by taking two time outs. The Azzurre led 23-16 until Poland scored five consecutive points to come back bravely. However, Italy’s middle-blocker Valentina Arrighetti stopped the Polish rush with an impressive block winner and the Italians never looked back.

The pressure on the Polish players increased in the third set. Piotr Makowski’s team needed a quick reaction. Nevertheless, Marco Mencarelli’s players kept the pace on a very high level. At 5-12, Makowski called his players for the second time off court for a serious discussion. It did not help as the Italian express was unstoppable now. The Azzurre sailed to an undisputed 25-13 set and 3:0 match win, showing great character after their disappointing performance versus Belgium two days before. 

Poland captain Katarzyna Ewa Skowronska-Dolata: “I wish I could say what went wrong today, but I don’t know why we experienced so many problems. You can lose when you fight, but we did not.”

Italy middle-blocker Valentina Arrighetti: “We needed a strong reaction after our loss against Belgium. I am sure everybody saw our answer tonight. I am happy with the performance of our team. This win was the result of a good job by the whole team.”

Poland head coach Piotr Makowski: “We played a very bad game today. We have a big mental problem in important games as other Polish teams in other sports have. We’ll need to analyse the reasons for our elimination.”

Italy head coach Marco Mencarelli: “That was our best game so far at EuroVolley 2013. The Italian media observed our performance. The critics were fair. We could not be satisfied with our performance before. That is the reason why I do not read the newspapers during a tournament. My wife does, but luckily she never tells me what they say.”