Netherlands coach Peter Blangé: "With the way Italy
played today, they deserved to win. Their tactical plan worked out very well
and they exposed our weakest aspects. Dragan Travica and Michal Lasko clearly
made the difference in comparison to the two other weekends. When I look back
at the first three rounds I am satisfied, because we played against the No. 1,
4 and 5 teams from the Olympics in Beijing. And we are still No. 28 in the
world rankings. Three victories and three losses are not bad for us."
Netherlands captain Jeroen Trommel: "It was not
hard to see that we could not reach the level we showed against USA and China.
This was clearly our bottom level. We have to look and analyze this game very
well to learn from it. Italy painfully exposed our weaknesses. Next week we can
expect another tough couple of matches. But first we have to look in the
mirror."
Italian coach Andrea Anastasi: "It was a very
interesting game for us. We played very good volleyball and everything worked
out perfectly, like we expected. We lost three matches ahead of this weekend
and by winning these games we are still in the tournament. We have to improve
step by step, day by day and match by match."
Italian captain Matej Cernic: "Today we won more
easily. With the 3-0 victory from yesterday our team was more confident. And
therefore we played at a much higher level. The Netherlands didn't play the
best matches, so that's why we could win two games in a row."