MATCH INFO

Kagoshima, Japan, November 21, 2011 - After a tough day one loss to the second-ranked Russians on Sunday, Italy bounced back with a win against the Egyptians on Monday. Now Italy looks ahead to a much tougher match-up versus Brazil, while Egypt has their sights set on picking up their first win against China.

Italy coach Mauro Berruto: I want to thank coach Sherif for his words; they are very important to me. It’s always wonderful to play Egypt. They are a good team, with a very high level of fighting spirit. We are happy to win and we respect Egypt a lot. We knew it wouldn’t be easy. They showed good skills in service yesterday and they showed it again today. We knew we had to play our best against them. For [coach Sherif], his team, and his country, I wish them all the best for the future.

On facing a very tough Brazilian team tomorrow: In this moment from a technical/tactical point of view, I don’t mind. This is a match I’ve been dreaming of for a long time; waiting for a long time — and my team as well. We just wish to show our best, to enjoy the match.

Italy captain Cristian Savani: I’m happy to win in this match, and we’d like to continue this streak. I’m expecting a difficult match coming up, but I’m happy we fought with confidence against Egypt.

On Brazil tomorrow: I’m expecting a little difficult match tomorrow but we are determined to fight against a higher ranked teams than us.

Egypt coach Elshemerly Sherif: I’d like to congratulate the Italian team and their coach for two things: First on their winning today, and second, [the fact that] I saw a new edition of their team today; they have started to renew the team and [coach Mauro Berruto] is doing good work. I wish them much luck for future. I think the team is becoming stronger.

As for my team we still need more time to become better and better. We didn’t play any matches, only two coming here since the African Championship. There were short period during the match that we performed well. But in the next matches we will play better. In this match we played many good, especially in our reception.

On facing China tomorrow: We respect them very much, and China is a very important match for us. We are hoping to win three or four matches here and one of those matches is China. I hope the team will play good; I think we played them three times this year… they won in China 3-0 and 3-2 in July, and we won in a friendly in Dubai in September 3-0. I think it will be a good match, and I hope to win. I hope the team plays better than in the first two matches.

Egypt captain Ashraf Abouelhassan: Congratulations to Italy. Today we played better than yesterday. And that’s normal because it’s a long and tough competition. We are trying to play better from match to match. The problem today was that our team made many mistakes on critical points. Today in the meeting we will try to discuss that and together with coach and try to solve the problems.

On team morale after two matches: From my point of view, I think that there is a very high level of competition here, and we are trying to play better and better match after match. We will play at a better level. I think the next matches our team should be able to play at the same level as other teams.