EUROVOLLEY 2019 M: Zaytsev’s one-man show in Italy’s win vs. Portugal, Finland spoil North Macedonia’s debut
Pubblicato da Playr
The team coached by Gianlorenzo Blengini resumed where it stopped in the FIVB International Olympic Qualifier, in which they earned a promotion to the Tokyo Games.The “Azzurri“ surpassed underdogs Portugal in the second match of Day 1 in Pool A (Montpellier, France) by a 3-0 (25-21, 25-10, 25-22).
Ivan Zaytsev had his show, leading the way for Italy to the win by scoring 18 points through 71% excellent attack (15/21). Lourenço Martins was Portugal's most prolific player with 14 points.
In the second match of the opening day in Pool C, Finland spoiled the debut of North Macedonia at European Championship. The nation from the Scandinavia beat rivals in four sets but broke the resistance of North Macedonia only after 116 minutes of a play.
Finland showed an impressive blocking display (15 kill blocks) of which 5 were made by Tommi Siirilä. As much as 11 players of Finland scored at least one point, led by Urpo Sivula (17). Interestingly, three players of North Macedonia scored the same number of points (14): Nikola Gjorgiev, Risto Nikolov and Aleksandar Ljaftov.
POOL A (Montpellier, France) Bulgaria – Greece 3-0 (25-22, 25-16, 25-20) Portugal – Italy 0-3 (21-25, 10-25, 22-25) France – Romania 20:45 CET
POOL C (Ljubljana, Slovenia) Turkey – Russia 1-3 (13-25, 25-23, 17-25, 15-25) Finland – North Macedonia 3-1 (25-23, 25-22, 23-25, 25-21) Slovenia – Belarus 20:30 CET