Volleyball, De Giorgi presents the European Championships: "Medals objective, ready to fight"

"The objective is to get to the end and compete for the medals: we are competitive but we know that the European Championship is a bit like the World Cup, if not more difficult, in the sense that the top four of the World Cup were European in the last edition, seven teams in the top ten in the ranking are European. We will have to battle, there is a lot of competition but we have prepared ourselves and our desire is to get to the end giving the best of what we can give." Thus the coach of the Italian men's national volleyball team, Ferdinando 'Fefè' De Giorgi, at Palazzo San Giacomo in Naples, on the sidelines of the press conference to present the opening match of the European Championships, scheduled for tomorrow evening at 9.05 pm in Piazza del Plebiscito.

"Pressure? No, we try to take the positive part of the fact that we play in Italy, all the affection we find. Then pressure is part of our game and also the ability to manage it" explains the coach who presents Italy's opponents: "The level is high - warns De Giorgi -. It's not just Slovenia, Czechia came fourth in the last World Cup, we have a fairly demanding group. In this type of event it's important to tackle one thing at a time and keep your mind on growing and improving during the tournament. The goal is to start tomorrow with Sweden and look game by game with the idea of growing. Then, when we get to the round of 16, it's an inside or outside game and there you have to collect what you've done."