European final at the World Championship: Türkiye vs. Italy

The semi-final matches at the World Championship in Thailand have been completed, as a result, both European teams - Türkiye and Italy will fight for gold medals. Japan and Brazil will play for bronze. It is only the second time in World Championship history that two European teams play against each other in the grand finale - it previously happened in 2018 in Japan when Serbia beat Italy. 

Japan - Türkiye 1-3 (25-16, 17-25, 18-25, 25-27)

Türkiye secured its first medal at the World Championships, winning in four sets against Japan.

Having lost only the first set, the Turkish players did not give their opponents a chance in the second and third, and the fourth set ended in a serious blow. Nevertheless, coach Daniele Santarelli's charges decided to save their strength for the final match and not take the match to a fifth set.

The key player of the match was Vargas, who brought her team 28 points (26 attacks, 1 block, 1 Ace). She is also the best attacker of the World Championship at the moment. Just like in the last match, Eda Erdem (team captain) and Ebrar Karakurt helped a lot to their team. They both scored 13 points.

The top scorer for the Japanese was Yukiko Wada (22 points, including 19 accurate hits, 2 aces and 1 block). Team captain Mayu Ishikawa also greatly helped her team, scoring 19 points (17 accurate hits, 2 aces).

Overall, the key moment of this match can be called the strong blocking game of the Turkish women, they surpassed their opponents in this indicator by two times - 12:6.

Attack:

Japan 55 - 58 Türkiye

Serve

Japan 5 - 4 Türkiye

Opponent's mistakes

Japan 19 - 19 Türkiye

Italy - Brazil 3-2 (22-25, 25-22, 28-30, 25-22, 15-13)

The second semifinal match could easily be called the final in terms of passions. A tough fight between two sworn rivals who recently met in the VNL final, where the Olympic champions from Italy became stronger.

Today's match was more like a seesaw, neither team could take two sets in a row until the decisive fifth. The third set was especially difficult, in which the Brazilians needed 30 points to finish it. This time, Antropova took the lead in the Italian team, bringing 28 points, including 20 in attack, 6 in block and 2 in serve. Sylla also made a huge contribution to the victory - 21 points (19 attacks, 2 blocks) and Egonu 10 points (9 in attack, 1 in serve).

Gabi became the absolute leader among the Brazilians again - 29 points (27 in attack, 2 in block), Rosamaria also made a huge contribution - 20 points (19 spikes, 1 serve).

As for the team statistics, the Brazilians greatly surpassed the Italians in block - as much as 22 against 15, but Azzurre were slightly better in serve (4-2) and made fewer mistakes. Both teams scored 69 points in attack.

World Championship Final Day Schedule:

1st Place Match 

Türkiye vs Italy - 7 September 14:30 CEST 

3rd Place Match

Japan vs Brazil 7 September 10:30 CEST