2006 World Championships   More World Championship news       Tournament info: Italy

Italy and Germany victorious on contrasting opening day

Napoli, Italy, July 29, 2005 – World number two Italy cruised past a new look Spanish side 3-0 (25-18, 25-19, 25-22) in their opening match of the 2006 Men’s World Championship third round tournament – Europe Pool I in Napoli on Friday, while Germany, thanks to an astonishing 39-point haul from Christian Pampel, joined the favourites at the top of the table after overcoming the Ukraine in a 150 minute 3-2 (34-32, 20-25, 25-17, 27-29, 15-11) marathon.

After the disappointment of missing out of the finals of the World League in their history, Italy restored order to lead the four team tournament along with Germany with a 1-0 win-loss record ahead of the Ukraine and Spain (both at 0-1).

Each team will play each other over three days with two games per day and by the end of Sunday we will have our two winners and the playoff team.
Pic: Spain's Vicente Ferrandez sets for Pedro Cabrera
The group is the final of four European third round tournaments being played this month where the top two sides from each tournament claim final round tickets. Since Europe has nine vacancies in the final round in Japan, the third placed side in each tournament will enter a four-way play-off for the one remaining ticket.

Italy (second in the world) are hot favourites but Spain (21st) and Germany (25th), who advanced from the second round, were expected to fight out a tough battle for the other final round ticket. The Ukraine (38th) will be trying to pull off the incredible having advanced from the second round.

On Saturday Spain play Germany at 16:00 GMT (18:00 local time) followed by Italy taking on the Ukraine at 18:30 GMT (20:30 local time).