(Carlo Lisi for iVolleymagazine.it) Italy overwhelms China 3-0 and begins to “study French”. The clear victory obtained in Macao over one of the greats of international volleyball gives a big jolt to the world rankings and places Julio Velasco’s team in an even more favorable situation in the race for Olympic qualification. The Azzurre, by winning 3-0 against a direct rival, added 9.3 points to their ranking and at the same time the Chinese lost them, slipping to minus 30.94. the advantage expands to 71.96 against Canada currently before the exclusions. When Italy has only 4 matches left to play.
After all, the Italian coach had anticipated it during the presentation of the Macau tournament, beating Brazil or China would have allowed him to take a decisive step towards the Olympic pass. Yesterday against Brazil Italy had (and would have deserved it) the first opportunity to score a significant victory, only missing it by just a little. Today against China Danes and their teammates didn’t waste their second chance and brought home a fundamental victory, in a truly peremptory manner.
The 3-0 over China (which did not field Zhu Ting almost at all) also brought Italy up to third place in the general ranking of the women’s VNL. with 6 wins and 19 points. The top seven in the general ranking plus host country Thailand will advance to the Finals in Bangkok (20-23 June).
Once the Macau stage has concluded, in the last week of play the Italian national team will be engaged from 11 to 16 June in Fukuoka (Japan), where they will find on their way: Canada, South Korea, the United States and Serbia.
Scoreboard Italy-China 3-0 (25-23 25-19 25-16)
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