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The Italians have left a better impression for now

The winner of this match goes directly to the quarter finals and therefore gets more rest for the coming game. Italy won routinely its two games, while Belgium had many problems yesterday against week Denmark

Italy reached its second victory against Belarus, and tomorrow it will play for the first place in the group against Belgium. The match started badly and they lost the first set, but dominated in the continuation and easily reached new points. The final score was 3-1 (21-25, 25-13, 25-21, 25-17).

- I'm sorry for the bad period and the game behind, but because of these things we are more connected as a team. Everybody is ready to contribute and that's most important. The match against Belgium will definitely be the most difficult so far - said the technician Travica.

The selector Berruti changed some things, so captain Savani finished in the stands, along with Lanza. Birarelli is transferred from the stands to the bench, and the starting lineup also entered Kovar. The rest of the team was the same, technician Travica, the second receiver Parodi, middle blockers Beretta and Piano, corrector Zaytsev, and center back Rossini. Everybody got the opportunity to get off the bench except for the technicians Saitta.

Italy had a lead for most of the set with a two goals difference, sometimes there was even three, but it never managed to take off. At 18-18, Belarus did against them a 4-0 series from which the Italians failed to recover and found themselves at a disadvantage. Berruti was visibly angry at his team during the intermission. In the second set, they played a lot better, led 8-4 and later 16-11. By the end they made a convincing 9-2 series to win the second set.

The Italian block worked very well, and Travica made great passing to his teammates. After a 7-6 lead, they made a series of 4 points and for most of the sets had the advantage of 6 points. At the end Belarus got a bit closer, but Italy deservedly took the lead. In the fourth set they immediately took a lead with 8-5 and 16-10, and routinely brought the game to an end for their second win.

Zaytsev, Parodi and Kovar scored 16 points, and blockers Piano and Beretta 9 points. They were better 12-8 in the blocks, but in the third set they made ​​even 10 errors, which will not go against the stronger teams.

- Much like against Denmark, we had a slow entry into the match, but by the end we played really well. Belarus was not an easy opponent and they defended great. The most important thing is that we won new 3 points. Now we must focus on the match against Belgium - said after the game selector Berruti.

- It was a team victory. They are aggressive and they defended well, but we managed to come back and win - were the words of Rossini, and Parodi added:

- I am happy to have reacted after we were down. Even without captain Savani and Birarelli, we had a great team that is capable of playing at the highest level.

Belgium had a lot of problems beating the weakest team of Group A, the host Denmark. It lost the first set lost even though it had a big lead, and eventually it did a large rebound to reach the maximum three points. The match ended with a 3-1 win (23-25, 25-23, 25-16, 28-26).

Selector Baeyens did not change a winning team and sent to the court technician Depestele, middle blocker Verhees and Van de Vorde, receivers Verhanneman and Derroo, corrector Van den Dries and center back Dejonckheerea.

Belgium has after the initial game "point for point" begun to increase the lead, and at the second technical time-out it led16-11. They did not play the rest of the set well, they made too many mistakes allowed Danes to return. They were in a good situation with the lead of 23-20, but then lost five points in a row, and thus lost a set. And in the second set, they had problems. They were in lead for the part in the second set with a three point difference, but won the set after winning after the tie of 23-23.

Their momentum did not continue in the fourth set and they allowed the Danes a lead 16-12. At the end of the set they were faced with three set points, but managed to keep calm and win the set 28-26, and thus the match.

- We never thought that we would easily beat Denmark. We played boldly and visibly progressed since our last match. I am happy that the team has shown that it has the power to reverse things in our favor. I promise that we will do our best to beat Italy - selector Baeyens said after the game.

Van den Dries was declared the player of the match after he won 28 points with a 60% realization. Double digit scorers were all the other players from the starting lineup except Depestela, who won 4 points. The block against Denmark did not have its best day, and a large number of errors must be reduced if they want to play against Italy.

The last time they played at the  European Championships, Italy celebrated with a 3-1 in sets.

Italy and Belgium will decide in a direct duel about who will qualify for the quarter finals, and who will have to play more games in the eighth round. Neither team was brilliant in the past two games. The Italians initially struggled against Denmark and only later started to play, while against Belarus they lost a set and only then started to play as they know. It is clear that they are still not tuned in as they are supposed to be, eight players are rookies, and will need some time for their form them reach the desired level. Belgium has played against Belarus as they should, their coach praised the technicians Depestelea, and his organization of attack could bring a lot to Belgium. Yesterday they played poorly against Denmark, but for that they're the only ones to blame. They led 16-11 in the first set and then stopped. Apparently they thought that Denmark would beat itself after they beat them in this year's European League four times 3-0. They have a lot of reserve, and Italy is the opponent that always brings out the best. They did not accidentally win the Europa League without defeat, and now they can definitely attack the Italians, so this is my margin of 170.5 points missed. Bet365 only has this margin while in others it is 177.5. To pass there are needed four sets, and these 177.5 of can be taken, but with lower stakes, while 170.5 is worth a 4 Units stake.