Innsbruck, Austria, September 11, 2011. The “Azzurri” claimed this afternoon also their second game of the prelims at the “Olympiaworld” in Innsbruck and they did so in straight – although very close – sets.
Frankly speaking nobody expected that there could be more Finns than Italian fans in attendance in Innsbruck. It seemed that even the Italian players were surprised by this fact, as they started the match pretty nervously. The “Suomi” calls from the stands helped Finland take an early lead and they almost maintained that until the end. Everything was ready for a big surprise when Italy suddenly stormed back to score 4 in a row and fix the final 25-23 on the scoreboard.
The second set started as the first one had ended before, i.e. with a 4-0 mini-break that put Italy to the front. It took some time till Finland recovered from the shock resulting from losing the opening set. Only via some strong services by Mikko Oivanen (3 winners), Finland was able to keep the game open till the end. They had the chance to win (23:22), but Italy countered again and used its third chance to secure the second set (27-25).
In the third set, Italy finally played more constantly and with fewer mistakes than the sets before. Also Italy’s service was putting more and more pressure on Finland’s receiving players whose efficiency dropped down quite dramatically. Finland tried to fight back but was not rewarded for their strong efforts.
36-year old Luigi Mastrangelo scored 18 points for Italy (8 blocks!) while Cristian Savani contributed 13. Like in Finland’s first match, Antti Siltala was the top scorer for his side with 10.
Italy’s coach Mauro Berruto, who worked in Finland for six years, had mixed feelings during the game. “To me the most important thing is that we played a fair game. It was very strange for me, because I know the Finnish players so well. If you ask me for the deciding moment, I would answer that this was the end of the first set”.
Daniel Castellani was again not happy with the way his team played in the deciding moments of the match. “Like yesterday, we were unable to use our opportunities. That’s why we lost the game. Our performance was o.k.”
Italy’s captain Cristian Savani emphasized the importance of the result for his team. “We wanted to get some energy for our last match against France. We won 3-0, so that’s a good game”.
Mikko Oivanen, Finland’s leading service player and second best scorer (9) was also very disappointed with the result. “We should have won the first set. I guess that in this case the match would have developed in another way for us. Now we have to win 3-0 against Belgium to remain in contention for the next phase”.