After the Olympics and the World Cup, no European Championship, yet for large stretches of the match Velasco’s team dominated
No trebles for the Italian volleyball team: after winning the Olympics and World Championships the Velasco girls lose the European Championship final against Turkeythe very team they had beaten in the World Cup final. This time in front of the very noisy Istanbul audience Egonu and his companions they play a game of taglargely dominated but in which they made too many mistakes. First of all, of lack of concentration when in the second set they squandered an advantage in a match that they seemed to have in hand. Also some choices by coach Velasco did not convince and then when the blue wall started to suffer and our reception became faulty, Turkey took over dragged by Vergas. While the hosts’ performance went up, that of the Italians went down, in particular Andropova did not give the hoped-for contribution and Egonu’s inevitable decline in the final paved the way for Turkey to win.
The match
Analyzing the five sets, it is paradoxical that Italy dominated three of them and yet was unable to capitalize on the superiority demonstrated. After winning the first set the Italians took a lead of 12-6 and then 19-7 in the second and here Velasco risked two changes: Adigwe and Changes for Orro and Egonu. Turkey took advantage of this by coming back thanks to Vargas. In the third set Italy dominated and won easily, but then the light went out. In the fourth set Turkey flew away and the Italians’ comeback attempt did not materialise. And in the fifth one almost had the impression that had lost confidence while Turkey was flying towards its second victory at the European Championship. With this result, Turkey qualifies for Los Angeles 2028 while the Italians will have to move on from the 2027 World Cup or from the possible placement in the world ranking.
