Germany falls to Italy in straight sets at 2012 European Olympic Qualifiers – Volleyball news
Looking for a clean sweep at the preliminaries of 2012 European Men’s Olympic Qualifiers, the German national team came up short against Italy in three sets.
Italian team displayed a good action on net and cruised past to 3-0 (25-22, 25-21, 25-22) victory in the match. Italy appeared in its second match, while completed the streak of three matches. Italy improved to 2-0 at the qualifiers and came close to earn
the semi-final spot. Germany already paved its way to semi-finals by winning the first two matches. However, Italy needs one more point to qualify for semis from Pool II.
Germany’s György Grozer topped all the scorers with his math-high 18 points. He added 12 spikes and five aces in the match but still could not lead his team to success. Michal Lasko emerged as the top-scorer on winning side as he added team-high 12 points.
Italy came out firing in the first set and picked up lead after a few rallies. Germany started off slow and lagged behind. The scoreboard showed Italy’s three-point lead at the first technical timeout. The trio of Michal Lasko, Ivan Zaytsev and Simone Parodi
helped Italy to control the operations of game. Germany did well on serves but could not catch up with the competitors. Italy led the scores throughout the first set and improved to 1-0 by claiming the opening frame, 25-22.
In the second set, German side threw everything in attack to take revenge of the previous. The opposite György Grozer produced powerful shots and managed to break through the Italian defence. Germany led the score 8-5 at FTT and improved to 16-14 at the
next break. However, Luigi Mastrangelo of Italy put the team back on track. Italy flipped the lead and ended up with second-set win at 25-21.
Third set featured a balanced action from start to end. The score remained tied and experienced many ups and downs. Nevertheless, Italy earned the winning status by sending 25-22 on board in third set.
The captain of German team, Björn Andrae said, “At some points, we were so close to the victory, but we did not find the right way to close the second and the third set. Everybody tried to do their best, I hope we made a pleasant match for the fans.”
On the other hand, his Italian counterpart Cristian Savani added, “Winning against such a quality team like Germany makes us very happy. Our opponent is showing great shape in this tournament and it was important to get these three points. I hope we will
continue to improve step by step and match by match until the end of the week.”
Italian hotshots will return to action in third and last match of the first round on Friday. They will cross their ways with team from Slovakia.
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