CAVALESE (TRENTO)- An Italy still searching for its best form began with a good victory against Serbia 3-2 (23-25, 33-31, 20-25, 25-20, 15-11), achieving the comeback success. What mattered tonight, however, was to break the ice and check the conditions of all the starters and De Giorgi will certainly draw positive indications from this match. Among the happier notes was Luca Porro’s extremely positive debut for the national team.
De Giorgi immediately chose the “usual” formation with the diagonal Giannelli-Romanò, Michieletto and Lavia spikers, Russo and Galassi central with Balaso libero.
Serbia lined up with Todorovic as dribbler, Atanasijevic opposite, Kujundzic and Peric spikers, Krsmanovic and Masulovic central with Kapur free.
The first set was substantially balanced with the Azzurri leading for long stretches until finding themselves at +2 in the final stages (23-21); however, when the situation seemed to be on track, the Serbs first impacted the situation at 23-23 and then placed the decisive break which decreed the 1-0 in their favor at 25-23.
The progress of the second set was incredible, ending at 33-31 in favor of the Azzurri after, however, a very long head-to-head which characterized the final phase of a set that seemed to be a repetition of the first. In fact, at 23-21, Giannelli allowed themselves to recover at 23-23 only to then miss a first set point. The Serbs, for their part, never gave up and served five times to take a 2-0 lead. Having achieved parity at 31-31, De Giorgi’s boys found the mental strength to deservedly close the set in their favor which decreed the tie.
In the third set, coach De Giorgi made his first change, inserting Rinaldi in place of Lavia at the start; as the minutes pass and with Serbia ahead, space also for Luca Porro who thus made his debut in the blue jersey; while Serbia then continued to manage the situation to their advantage, Alessandro Bovolenta replaced Yuri Romanò. Despite the changes, however, the momentum of the set did not change and the guests managed to win 25-20, thus taking the lead to 2-1.
The start of the fourth set was characterized by a good start for Italy still lined up with Bovolenta as opposite and Porro as banda. At 15-13 for the Azzurri, Simone Anzani also entered the field and thus found the Azzurri again after the well-known health problems of last season due to which he had missed the European Championships played at home. The new structure chosen by the coach bore fruit with Italy who, after having failed in an initial set ball, managed to bring the match to a tie-break thanks to the final 25-20.
Galvanized by the progress of the fourth set, the Azzurri also started decisively in the tie-break which they led consistently up to 15-11 which closed the match at 3-2 for Giannelli and his teammates.
