Italy beats Poland 3-1 and flies to the European final against Turkey

Only a momentary turbulence, in the third set, shakes the journey that takes Italy's women's volleyball team to the European final. Julio Velasco's Italians beat Poland three to one (25-19, 25-19, 21-25, 25-16 the final score) and are preparing for yet another tough match against Turkey coached by Daniele Santarelli: they finished 3-0 twice - once in the group, once in the semi-final - on their way to the historic Olympic gold in Paris, it was a very tight 3-2 last year in Bangkok in the last act of the World Cup.

This time, however, to complete the treble it will be necessary to go beyond the opposing fans in the stadium in Istanbul, all on the side of Vargas and her teammates. Italy started well with two series of serves by Orro and Danesi who immediately forced Lavarini to time out at 6-2 for the Azzurri. The Poles recover a couple of points, but in the final Egonu and her teammates get back on track, closing the set with two peremptory blocks at 25-19.

At the beginning of the second set, Antropova served to guarantee an initial escape for Velasco's team. The Polish team closes to 10 all; the balance, however, lasts a change of ball, because Italy immediately puts their nose back in front and then spreads, increasing the advantage exponentially up to another 25-19 sealed by a lucky ace from Danesi. In the third set, Lavarini's athletes took the lead, thanks to a couple of errors by Egonu and Antropova: at 6-2, Velasco called a timeout. The Italians regained their concentration and in a short time they returned to parity at 9. This time, however, the Poles were not there and - with Stysiak on the bench - they flew to +5. From there, having rejected another comeback attempt, they hit the gas again for the 25-21 which extends the match. The fourth set starts under the sign of the blue wall, which with Danesi and Egonu raises the pace and favors the points for an escape that is an escape for victory: peremptory 25-16 and thoughts immediately turned - after a bit of celebration - to Turkey, the hosts. "We expect a hostile arena, I hope it will be a good match to end this summer on a high note - declared Antropova, who scored 14 points at the end of the match -. Playing against them at home is difficult but also very stimulating. We are happy when we encounter difficulties and manage to overcome them, but tomorrow we will have to improve our consistency".

Myriam Sylla gives credit to Poland: "It was a very difficult match, complicated in reception, I'm very happy with the result - says the blue band -. However, the other teams study us and from a certain point onwards they were better, even if perhaps we fell back. But the important thing is to be able to recover". "I'm very happy because the summer is long and it's never a given to get here - the words of Egonu, top scorer with 21 points on the scoresheet -. We'll have to create our own bubble with respect to the public and think about ourselves". Preaching calm is Alessia Orro, who raised balls to the opposing star all year at Fenerbahce: "With Vargas it will take a lot of patience because he varies many shots and, when the ball arrives, it arrives strong. We will have to be organized and do what we study", explains the setter. She was there - together with Egonu, Sylla, Danesi and Fahr - five years ago in Italy's last European triumph, when the Italians defeated Serbia, silencing the 20,000 in Belgrade: the objective now is to repeat the feat in Turkey.