Volleyball European Championships, Italy beats Latvia 3-0 and flies to the quarterfinals

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September 12, 2021

The Italian National team wins the quarter-finals of the 32nd edition of the European Championships by virtue of the net success obtained against Latvia with a score of 3-0 (25-14, 25-13, 25-16).

Ferdinando De Giorgi's boys will now return to the field on Wednesday 15 September (time to be determined) against the winner of the eighth final which will be played at 7 pm which will see Andrea Gianni's Germany against Silvano Prandi's Bulgaria.

Too clear today, the technical gap between the two teams with the tricolor formation that paid a bit of excitement at the start of the race and then gradually took over the situation by playing a good volleyball as usual and managing to impose their own pace to the opponents who had to surrender to the superiority of the Italian sextet.

Italy took the field with the usual deployment: Giannelli-Pinali the diagonal, Anzani and Galassi the central, Michieletto and Lavia the hammers with Balaso free.

Latvia lined up with Petrovs D. setter, opposite Egleskalns, Svans and Freimanis the central, Smits and Ozolins the spikers with Ivanovs free.

First set in which after a rather contracted start by the Azzurri (seven will be errors in the partial), with the Latvians able to stay in contact (11-11), the real technical values ​​gradually emerged: the service improved and recorded the defensive phase De Giorgi's boys first placed the break that broke the set (from 14-12 to 20-12) and then concluded without worries on 25-14 thanks also to the 5 walls scored.

In the second Giannelli and his companions immediately administered an advantage that fluctuated between +2 (6-4) of the start and +9 (16-7, 17-8,18-9) of the central part, and then increased gradually the gap until the final 25-13 arrived at the third set ball.

During the course of the fraction, Francesco Recine entered the field instead of Michieletto.

Third set again with Recine on the pitch and the Azzurri who again gave something to their opponents at the start (10-8).

With the passing of the minutes, however, once again, the Azzurri shook off the Latvians, conceding less and less (16-11, 17-12) until 25-16 which decreed the end of the match at the second match ball.