Volleyball World: Italy beats China and is first in the group

Great Italy at the World Cup in Holland. The blues overwhelm China, one of the most accredited teams and take first place in this second round. Now they just have to wait to get to know the opponent they will find in the quarter-finals. For the bizarre (and wrong) formula of this tournament, on Tuesday in Aperldoorn in the quarterfinal match (17 or 20 hours) they will face the fourth classified of this group. Which at the moment is impossible to delineate, but which absurdly could still be China itself.

Italy-China 3-0 (26-24, 25-15, 25-)

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Italy starts with a single change in the starting seven for the blue: Marina Lubian takes the place of Cristina Chirichella who has the jersey of the second free, kept at rest as a precaution for a small muscle problem. China immediately appears different from the other matches, but Italy also appears immediately on the ball. The Chinese push with Wang Yunlu and Yuan, while Italy has a much more lucid Egonu (10 points in the set, with over 57% efficiency). The blues defend very well even in the center and Marina Lubian breaks the serve. But on 24-21 the blue wasted 3 set balls and we went to the advantages, where Egonu is still decisive. The start in the second set is easier: here the Italian joke immediately makes the difference and for China there is nothing to do. Always chasing. Mazzanti as in the first set also in the second makes a relay between the Orro-Malinov setters and the Asians are always heavily late: 22-15. In the third set, Italy takes the decisive break soon enough (19-15) and for China (despite the affection of the finally large Asian audience) there is nothing more to be done: the blues suffer the return of the China until 19-17, before scoring the decisive break. Tomorrow Mazzanti’s team will have their last training session in Rotterdam before moving to Apeldoorn, home of the last phase of the World Cup, and will wait for the next opponent.