Italy beat Spain 3-1 (25-21, 25-23, 22-25, 25-21) - duration 1:50
28-Jul, start time: 12:00, end time: 13:50 - Attendance: 3,950 Italy struggles to beat Spain 1:3
Italy wanted to repeat yesterdays story and soon took the lead in the game. Despite Italian initiative, Spain had more to say today. In the second half of the first set, the Spanish offensive system started to work. The aggressive attacking actions by Enrique De la Fuente and Juan José Salvador found no initial response from the Italian defense and Spain put a lot of pressure to their rivals. When Spain seemed capable to tie the set, Italy took use of a couple of serving mistakes of local team to win the period (21-25) In the second set, spaniards' only goal was to change the situation in the game. They seemed to have learned the lesson and with an aggressive style of playing and the effective serves by Juan José Salvador, put an answer to the Italian starting lead (12-12). From this moment on, the period was equalized. Italy tried to turn back the situation to yesterdays pattern with offensive actions of one of the best players from the first game, Alessandro Fei. Italy seemed to have more confidence in their actions than their rivals. That was the key in the end of the set and the reason Italy won the second period. In the definitive moment, a block from Italy and a strong attack by Andrea Sartorelli gave Italy the second set (23-25). In the third period, a series of reception problems from the local team in the first part of the set provided Italians with the lead in the game. Spain tried to tie the set but the visiting team answered with precise blocks. Gustavo Saucedo and José Casilla entered in the game and Spain found more variety of offensive actions from both wings. Then, the Spanish blocking started to work too, and with the powerful serves by Guillermo Falasca, Spain won the third set (25-22). In the fourth set the actions from Casilla and Saucedo found answers from Fei and Sartorelli, and the set was tied from the very beginning. The block and the confidence was the key form Italian victory.Therefore, the forced mistakes from Spaniards granted Italy with the second victory in the series.
