A victory and a defeat conclude the third qualifying week of the men’s Nations League and guarantee Italy third place in the standings behind Poland and Slovenia. In the stage in Ljubljana, De Giorgi’s Azzurri (who gave the starters some days of rest after having obtained Olympic qualification) yesterday suffered a clear defeat against the hosts. A 3-0 (25-19, 25-21, 25-19) with 21 points from Stern while the Azzurri found the best scorer in Bottolo, lined up as the starter, with 12 points. Today Italy made up for it in the final match against Turkey by winning 3-1 (25-21, 24-26, 25-19, 25-21), a match largely dominated with 26 points from Alessandro Bovolenta while on the other part of the goal for the Turks Lagumdzija with 21 points was not enough to keep up with the Azzurri. For Italy also 15 points from Bottolo and 12 from Luca Porro. Ten team aces with 3 for Sbertoli. A good reaction for De Giorgi’s boys who in this Slovenian stage were able to give space to those who had played less allowing the younger ones (Bovolenta and Luca Porro are from 2004) to accumulate important experience
finals
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Now Italy looks to the Nations League Finals which will start on June 27th in Lodz (Poland) with the quarterfinals (the Azzurri will meet Andrea Giani’s France on June 28th) and De Giorgi will confirm this group for the last act as scheduled of the event while the group of starters will start training at home again in view of the Olympics. Two test matches have already been scheduled for them on 16 and 18 July in Florence and Bologna against Argentina. The Nations League quarter-final pairings: 27 June at 5pm Japan-Canada; 8pm Poland-Brazil; 28 June at 5pm Italy-France; 8pm Slovenia-Argentina.
