Serbia and Italy into the Semis of the Volleyball World Champs
News
Yesterday was a day full of excitement at the Volleyball World Champs as all the quarterfinals matches unfolded one by one. The Finalists of EuroVolley 2021, Italy and Serbia have made it through to the semis of the World Champs, overcoming China and Poland respectively. Leaving the competition alongside Poland is Türkiye, who unfortunately lost in straight sets to the USA.
Reigning European Champions, Italy made good work of the quarterfinals clash against China, dropping just one set on their way to the semis (3:1 – 25-16, 25-22, 13-25, 25-17). Superstar Paola Egonu was shining bright yet again, scoring an impressive 29 points for her team.
The second match of the day saw Türkiye failing to overcome the big hurdle on their way to the semis, represented by the USA. It was a rough night for Giovanni Guidetti’s side, one in which they were overpowered in every set (3:0- 25-22, 25-15, 25-20), never quite looking like that could get back in the game and turn things around. Turkish young star, Ebrar Karakurt finished her tournament with 16 points added to her tally of 173 in total.
The third quarterfinal brought Brazil and Japan face to face, in one of the hardest matches to predict at this stage of the tournament. Despite not having any European representation, fans had plenty to look forward with some big names playing in Europe being involved, including Vakifbank’s Gabi. It turned out to be quite a firecracker, Brazil coming back from two sets down to claim it in the deciding set, heavily helped by Gabi’s outstanding Player of the Match performance with 25 points scored (3:2 – 18-25, 18-25, 25-22, 27-25, 15-13).
Closing off the quarterfinals day was the All-European battle between reigning world champions Serbia and hosts Poland, or the battle between Tijana Boskovic (36 points) and Magdalena Stysiak (40 points) as it turned out to be in many key points throughout the match.
Tijana Boskovic“It was an incredible match. I want to congratulate Poland for such a great tournament and for being amazing opponents today. The fans were all against us, but we really enjoyed playing in this atmosphere. We want to be in the final again and we knew we’d have to play our best until the last point. Even when they were ahead in the tiebreaker, we were never going to stop. It’s a really demanding tournament and we’ll be back on the court tomorrow for the semifinals.”
Team Serbia
With almost 10,000 fans behind them, Poland was never going to pull out of a proper battle and they made that clear from the beginning, starting very strong and winning the first set. Serbia bounced back quickly, taking the next two sets, yet Poland would not give up, taking the fourth set and pushing for a deciding set. It wasn’t meant to be for Poland, as they bow out of the tournament earlier then their fans would’ve hoped for, however Serbia remain on course to defend their title (3:2 – 21-25, 25-21, 25-19, 24-26, 16-14).