Italian coach Davide Mazzanti watches the game against China
Sapporo, Japan, October 4, 2018 –Italy fought back brilliantly to overcome China 3-1 (20-25, 26-24, 25-16, 25-20) and finish the first round of the FIVB World Championship 5-0 at Hokkaido Prefectural Sports Center on Thursday. China ended the first round 4-1.
Italy coach Davide Mazzanti: I’m satisfied with today’s result. It’s a good step forward. In the first set, the players were a little bit nervous but from the second set I had the players play freely. We knew all about the China team and their abilities, so we tried to serve strong and we were able to focus on the game and this helped us to win. It’s important for us to keep this attitude and playing style and to keep our concentration.
(Re. Lucia Bosetti and Paola Egonu): Of course, Egonu is a very important player for us and gets some of the spotlight but Bosetti is also very important, particularly in terms of reception and defence, but she’s also good in attack so she’s a key player.
Italy captain Cristina Chirichella: We played a great game. We knew that China is strong and we knew that we would have a tough time, but we didn’t lose our fighting spirit and we were able to concentrate throughout the match.
Paola Egonu: It was a great game and we tried very hard. It’s normal to make some mistakes, but the coach told us how we win is less important than the result.
China coach Lang Ping: Congratulations to the Italian team. We were able to get into the game at the start but Italy’s spiking and blocking was excellent. Now, we need to review this game and our skills as we head toward our next match.
China captain Zhu Ting: Today was not a good day and I’m sorry we lost. We have to go back and watch the video of this match and prepare for our next match.
China setter Ding Xia: The main reason we lost was because of our poor reception. It’s a shame we lost today.