The men’s Italy exits the European Championships beaten by Finland at the PalaVela in Turin. For coach De Giorgi it is the lowest point of five years of management
The geography of this Italvolley defeat has something mocking. Just take a step back in time. In 2018, Blengini’s Italy failed to reach the world semi-finals at the Inalpi Arena. This time the stage is the PalaVela, three kilometers away. Same outcome, same sporting pain. And so, yesterday 23 September, Finland, 17th in the world ranking, eliminated the two-time world champions of Ferdinand De Giorgi to the quarter-finals of the European Championship. Such a shame has not happened since 2019, when the national team was defeated by France.
The illusion of the first set
The start is like a great national team, like world champions. Simon Giannelli He dictates the timing of the service and from there come the decisive breaks. Pardo Mati dominates the block with two winners that are worth the lead. Yuri Romanò, in turn, scores eight points, with 86% positivity and two aces. The Italy of the first set is the one that, for two weeks, dragged the arenas from Naples to Modena.
In the second partial the music changes. The perfect symphony of the Azzurri takes on cacophonous cadences, with notes that screech and protagonists on the pitch that go out of time. Finland grows up with brothers Luka and Nooa Marttila and with the opposite Joonas Jokela. At 26-25 Italy wastes a set point, Roman he suffers a heavy block and the match is overturned. Luka Marttila equalizes the scores, but the deepest damage is psychological: the certainties of Italian volleyball crumble in just a few exchanges.
Italy’s last sets at the European Volleyball Championships
The partial third is the symbol of this psychological collapse. Italy takes the field as if it didn’t have a plan, lost, without solutions. A déjà vu: it is the same national team that lost its bearings in the Olympic semi-final in Paris against France in the summer. At 9-3, De Giorgi it starts a whirlwind of changes which never, however, produces the right set-up. The 8,260 spectators at the PalaVela watch (petrified) a team they don’t recognize.
In the fourth set Italy returns to the initial structure with Galaxies in the place of Mati. The block works best: four total winners, including three of Sanguinetti. But the body language of the Azzurri never conveys confidence. The final flash that leads to the tie-break is real, but ephemeral. It’s just an illusion that lengthens the suffering by a further partial.
At 11-8 in the fifth set, with the ace of Romanthe sports hall lights up again. Italy, for a moment, seemed one step away from the semi-final in Milan. Then, an ace as usual Luka Marttilaa wall and an invasion of Bottolo they sadly deliver the match point to Finland. The outsized attack of Roman closed everything, putting an end to the Italian adventure at the European Volleyball Championships.
The budget of the elimination
This defeat does not arise only from Finland. It also arises from decisions made in the summer. The renunciation of Alessandro Bovolentabest opposite of the last Super League, has deprived De Giorgi of a fundamental resource in the most delicate role. The choice to call up five spikers and only three centre-backs, necessary to make room for Michielettoproved to be a compromise that paid off only intermittently.
In short, just twelve months after the world double, the Italian movement closed the summer with a European silver in the women’s competition and a quarter-final elimination in the men’s. It is the lowest point of management De Giorgiin his fifth season as coach of the national team. Starting again now will require an honest and in-depth analysis of what didn’t work: in the mechanisms, in the choices, in the mental stability. Turin has turned the spotlight on fragilities that until yesterday seemed like a distant memory.
