Italy coach Massimo Barbolini:
"I'm glad we won. It was important for us to win and stay with the top teams in the tournament. From the third set we did everything well - serve, block, defend. We have a tough match with the Americans tomorrow."

Italy captain: Eleonora Lo Bianco:
"The game changed when we won the second set. We had a good reaction after that. The games are all important now."

Italy player Francesca Piccinini:
"We are quite happy with the result. We lost two matches in Hamamatsu. We concentrated and put pressure on them."

German coach Giovanni Guidetti:
"They played well in defence and attacked well. They found the Italian way to play. We made a lot of mistakes after the second set."

German captain Christiane Furst:
"We played two sets at a really high level. We lost our energy and spirit in the third and fourth sets. They attacked better and found holes in our defence. We lost concentration."