MATCH INFO

Hiroshima, Japan, November 4, 2011 - Italy beat Japan in the last match of the opening day of the World Cup on Friday.

Eleonora Lo Bianco: I am very happy for our game, we started well and I’m satisfied and the way we continued to play int he game. Japan is very strong and we never beat them this year, so I’m very satisfied.

Against China tomorrow: We beat China in Macao 3-2 it was a long game but we played very well. I think we played a good game. We played Japan today, tomorrow v china. Both play quick, so its perfect I think.

On her 500th match: Its a very good sensation and I tried to honor this 500th time that I played with this uniform. Its an honor for me.

Italian coach Massimo Barbolini: First of all I want to say this victory is dedicated to a friend of mine who died yesterday, president Carlo Iacone of Sirio Perugia, a man very important for the sport (Iacone passed away on Thursday aged 66. Barbolini was a former coach at Sirio Perugia). I’m really happy I can dedicate this victory to him. It was important for us as we played Japan, our first match with a new team and new way of playing. We knew it would be difficult to beat Japan. Our players were good. It is important to be perfect against Japan. Defence, service, reception — I think we won a very important match.

When Japan plays quick, we have to block and defend. And I think on this night we stood very well… We know the World Cup is very long, but now we have to get ready to go against China, another one of the strongest teams in the world.

On communication: We tried to study how the block worked against us, and we tried to communicate, to watch if something changed. And if it needed to change, we changed, from a tactical point of view.

Japan captain Erika Araki: It was the first match, very important, we’re sorry we lost We lost many points. We could do better on defence.

Saori Kimura: We wanted to win this match, so we’re sorry we lost. I made a lot of mistakes and as a team we couldn’t play our style.

Risa Shinnabe: As they say, I’d also like to say sorry for today. We made many mistakes. But tomorrow we well try to start playing our style of volleyball.

Masayosi Manabe: The Italian service was very good today and we only had one way of attacking.

The second set we played very good defense. We practiced very hard, but we didn’t play as hard as we practiced… In the fourth set there was stronger blocking from Italy, and we didn’t play well against it.

Kimura was good at first, but in the middle of the match the Italian serve was targeting her and she gradually lost control.

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