Italians gather steam for big clash with Japanese

Team Japan in the Volleyball Nations League (VNL). –MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net

Team Japan in the Volleyball Nations League (VNL). –MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net

Italy hardly worked up a sweat in thumping Slovenia, practically making an announcement of how ready they are to face Japan in their blockbuster men’s Volleyball Nations League (VNL) match.

A 25-13, 25-22, 25-17 victory carved out in just an hour and 26 minutes at Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay on Friday made the Italians look super prepared and amped for their 7 p.m. clash with the league-leading Japanese Saturday as they try to stay at the top half of the eight-team field that will advance to the final week in Poland.

“We want to win [again] tomorrow,” Yuri Romano said after drilling the Slovenian defense with 11 attacks on the way to 16 points.

Daniele Lavia and crowd-favorite Alessandro Michieletto scored 13 points each for Italy.

The Italians are 3-0 in the Philippine stop and Romano knows exactly what they are going up against when he was asked of their clash with the Japanese.

“It will be a difficult one.”

The Italians rose to 8-3 overall, with world No. 1 Poland at 8-2 after a 25-23, 22-25, 25-21, 25-21 creaming of Brazil in an earlier match that sent the Brazilians out of the top four at 7-4.

Top two teams

The Poles are also undefeated here after dispatching the formidable Brazilians in less than two hours. Japan and the United States occupy the top two spots in the standings with the Americans seeing action in the simultaneous leg in Anaheim, California.

Wilfredo Leon Venero led Poland over the 2016 Olympic gold medal winner Brazil, scattering 22 points built on 20 hits, counting the sharp blast that gave the Poles the slim first-set win.

“We prepare for this kind of games,” Leon Venero said. “Brazil is a very strong team so we knew from the beginning that it will be a tough game. [If we play] our best game, we think it’s enough to win.”

Bartosz Bednorz added 11 points as 2021 VNL MVP Bartosz Kurek had 10 for Poland, which will host the eight-team finale on July 19 to 24 in Gdansk City, where a whopping $1.5 million (around P84 million) is up for the champion.



Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.



Your subscription has been successful.


Read Next

Don’t miss out on the latest news and information.

Subscribe to INQUIRER PLUS to get access to The Philippine Daily Inquirer & other 70+ titles, share up to 5 gadgets, listen to the news, download as early as 4am & share articles on social media. Call 896 6000.

For feedback, complaints, or inquiries, contact us.

For all the latest Sports News Click Here 

 For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News

Read original article here

Denial of responsibility! TheDailyCheck is an automatic aggregator around the global media. All the content are available free on Internet. We have just arranged it in one platform for educational purpose only. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials on our website, please contact us by email – [email protected] The content will be deleted within 24 hours.