Italy beats Germany in semi-final of 2011 CEV Girls’ Youth European Championship
Italy worked out a great victory against Germany in the five-set thriller on Saturday, May 7, 2011.
They posted a 3-2 (21-25, 25-22, 34-32, 22-25 and 15-10) victory over Germany and booked a slot in the final showdown of the 2011 CEV Girls’ Youth European Volleyball Championship. The Baskent Sports Hall in Ankara, Turkey recorded a scintillating episode
of volleyball by the two semi-finalist teams.
The influential match saw many twists and twirls but there were moments in the match when it suspense was on high stake. Nonetheless, victory was destined to bestow upon Italy, while Germany could not live up the dream of playing in final match.
Germans opened the match with accurate serves and hit the mark with 4-1 lead. On the other hand, Italians took a little time to settle down in their positions. As counter-attack started from Italian side, the gap of points minimised.
Germany was ahead of Italy with a margin of only two points at the first technical timeout. Meanwhile, young Italian setter, Chiara Scacchetti put her magic in the game. She found a great rhythm to raise her team’s score. As the game progressed, Italy went
up on the scoreboard. However, resilient rivals Germans bounced back in the game and retook the control of operations. They once again built a 2-point lead at the second technical timeout (16-14). The Italian mentor called in better substitutions after second
mandatory stop. The newcomers put up a good effort but failed to save the opening set. Germans claimed first set by putting up 25-21 on board.
After dropping the opening set, Italy hit back strongly in the following set. The fired-up Italian hitters showed no mercy and stormed the opponents’ half with unstoppable spikes. Germany was held in utter awe by hostile response of Italians.
At the FTT, Germany trailed behind with a gap of four points. The good coordination of attack and block helped Italy to return in the game in second set. The Germans resisted in full force and tried to hinder the performance of Italian team. However, Italy
continued with success and did not allow Germany to come up. Second set ended in Italy’s favour as they built a score of 25-22.
Third set of the match was the real fight between two teams. The exchange of swift serves and fast spikes created frenzy in early few minutes. The players of both teams jumped on every little opportunity to earn better status.
The captain of Italian team, Elena Perinelli kept her girls motivated and united. They led the score with one-point lead at the first technical timeout. Afterwards, the Italian team kept on moving on in a remarkably consistent way. They extended the lead
to 11-8, while German side was struggling to break their tempo.
They came from different angles but Italy was not ready to lose their grip at any cost. They maintained their dominance in the game and stretched their lead to 2-1 at the end of third set. Germany bore the loss the third set with a close gap of two points
at 32-34.
Italy started out with commanding shots in the fourth set. They enjoyed lead over Germany in the first half of the set. Gradually, Germans raised their heads and managed to push Italians behind the attack line. They created a major twist in the game by tying
the score at 2-2. Germany pulled off success in the fourth set by polling 25-22.
The competition reached its height in the final set. Italy played very sensibly and did not do any silly mistakes as the game had entered in the most crucial phase. Germans, on other hand, failed to deal with Italians cut shots and tricky bump-passes. Italy
emerged as the victorious team by winning fifth set with the final score of 15-10.
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