Olympics: Italy and Russia through to men's volleyball semis

Thursday 21 August 2008

BEIJING - Italy edged Poland 3-2 in a men's volleyball quarter-final thriller at the Beijing Olympic Games on Wednesday.

Russia are also through to the semi-finals after a 3-1 victory over Bulgaria.

Italy, who dominated volleyball in the 1990s before falling off their lofty perch, seemed to be cruising into the last four after taking the first two sets but they lost their way in the third as star spiker Mariusz Wlazly inspired a Polish fightback.

Still, the Italians had a match point in the fourth set but a Wlazly spike saved it and another set up set point for the Poles.

Italy crucially left a Michal Winiarski serve that went in to set up a tie-breaker.

Poland kept showing their fighting spirit as they came back from 9-6 down in the breaker to level at 12-12, but Italy eked out a match point that Matteo Martino converted with a powerful spike.

They next face the winners of the quarter-final between favourites Brazil and hosts China.

Vigor Bovolenta, one of Italy's main attacking weapons, said there was little doubt as to who they would play next.

"Poland did very well to come back and played very well defensively bt we did well not to lose concentration," he said.

"It's Brazil or China next. On paper it would be better to have China but that's unlikely, it will probably be Brazil."

The Russians were off to a slow start but took control from the second set as Bulgaria paid for a lack of organisation, with two players often going for the same ball.

That and some impressive blocking from the Russians proved decisive, with Sergey Grankin winning the final point with another successful block on a Plamen Konstantinov spike.

Blocking was probably the biggest difference between the sides with Russia managing twice as many kills as the Bulgarians with 14 to seven.

Even so, Russia's chief blocker Alexander Volkov said his side had struggled with Bulgaria's top spiker Matey Kaziyski, who top-scored with 24 points.

He managed 20 successful spikes from 33 attempts but his team-mates couldn't match his endeavours.

"I can't say that we managed to fully cope with the Bulgarians, especially Kaziyski," said Volkov.

"In the first set we were just waking up but after that we managed to play collectively.

"As for Bulgaria, they can play one very good game in any tournament and I was praying before the game that it wouldn't be against us."

The Russians were more effective on their spiking, being successful a third of the time, compared with just under a quarter for the Bulgarians.

Russia's ability to dig the ball up and keep it in play was truly remarkable at times and even if they still went on to lose the point, they thrilled the crowd and certainly boosted their own morale.

Russia have only won two major global titles since the fall of the Soviet Union - the 1999 World Cup and 2002 World League - but already here they have beaten Brazil in the group stages, although they finished second to the South Americans in Pool B due to a loss to Poland.

In the last four they will face either Pool A winners USA or Serbia, who they beat 3-1 in their opening Pool B match.

"It doesn't matter who we play against in semi-final," added Volkov. "However I think USA have a better chance."