Like a year ago, the final will still be Italy-Poland. This time, however, the World Cup is not up for grabs, but the European Championship: Grbic’s boys will try to avenge the defeat on 11 September 2022 in front of their home crowd, trying to repay the Azzurri with the same coin seen that on Saturday the final will be at the PalaEur in Rome. And to witness the last act there will also be the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, who communicated his presence to CONI’s no.1, Giovanni Malagò, as soon as the Azzurri’s semi-final against France ended. A final act which Italy achieved by constructing the victory point by point with difficulty, despite the 3-0 result over the French team suggesting that it was an easy match. Great concentration throughout the race.
The French, however, will play the third and fourth place final against Slovenia. In Rome the Italian show ends in less than two hours of play with scores of 25-21, 25-19 and 25-23 for De Giorgi’s boys who, after the marathon with the Netherlands in the quarter-finals, accepted the shares long stretches of their cousins from beyond the Alps, without losing patience or feeling the pressure of having to confirm the title won in 2021. On Saturday they will challenge Poland for the eighth continental title with De Giorgi who will ask for a final effort from his “warriors”, dragged by a hall with 10 thousand spectators, practically all Italians, and which in the first set also forced the speaker to ask not to use the laser against the French players. A point-to-point first set until 18 all, when Sbertoli’s entry into service gave way to Italy’s escape, who did well to close on the second of the four set points available. Even two more (6) set points in the second for the Azzurri, led by Lavia, Michieletto and Romanò. In short, De Giorgi’s team leads throughout the second set which ends 25-19 and even in the third they always keep their head ahead with the point of 12-6 which is the one that ‘kills’ the French. Sci-fi recovery by Lavia who, with the action underway, also finds time to smile after the response on Ngapeth’s dunk. From then on at every point for Italy it was bedlam, until 25-23 which decreed the success of the Azzurri and the second consecutive final in Europe with De Giorgi on the bench who, before leaving the pitch, hugged Andrea Giani, the coach French with whom he won three world titles from ’90 to ’98. Now there is one last match left before the possible celebration but facing in the final, as mentioned, there will be Poland who overcame Slovenia in four sets (with the score of 23-25; 25-21; 25-20; 25 -21), thus dispelling a curse that for two European Championships now (in 2019 and 2021) has always seen it stopped by Cretu’s team in the race for gold. Not this time, despite a high-voltage challenge with several protests from Grbic’s national team against the refereeing pair formed by the Slovakian Igor Porvaznik and the Italian Ilaria Vagni.
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2023-09-14 21:56:04
#Eurovolley #Italy #beats #France #flies #final #Volleyball
