Poland didn’t let a loud home crowd get in the way of their game as they toppled Italy in straight sets in the European Championship final in Rome and are now celebrating the European Men’s Volleyball Championship.
Poland was a tough opponent in the men’s European Volleyball Championship final, when they defeated home crowd favorite Italy directly 3–0 (25–20, 25–21, 25–23).
The last – and only – time Poland won the men’s European Championship gold was in 2009. The teams met a year ago in the final of the World Cup and Italy won 3–1. Italy also won the 2021 European Championship.
– A really big robbery from Poland and Poland deserved its victory. They were clearly the better team today and Italy couldn’t get to their level. The team was clearly tense, the hands were not relaxed in the reception and there was a lot of confusion as to who would take which ball, Urheilu’s expert Mikko Esko stated.
Italy won the World Cup gold and the European Championship gold with almost the same composition, but the team has still been rejuvenated. According to Esko, this was especially evident in a pressure situation. Among other things, right at the beginning of the match, Poland was able to run away to a 4–0 lead and kept Italy behind them throughout the set.
– In part, the pressure from the home crowd could only be a disadvantage for Italy, because the game started poorly. That pressure increased within the team.
Bronze medalists Slovenia, who defeated Olympic champions France after a tight five-set battle 3–2 (25–22, 25–16, 21–25, 18–25, 15–11). Finland played with Slovenia in the same starting group and lost to the team 3–0.
Cuban-born general player from Poland Wilfredo Leon scored 13 points in the match, middle defender Norbert Huber 12 points and your pick Lukasz Kaczmarek 10 points. Italy’s best scorer was a versatile player Daniel Lavia with 13 points.