A thousand emotions in the quarterfinals, the Azzurri overcame a two-goal deficit and triumphed with Di Fulvio’s decisive goal. Campaign: “I got emotional.” The match against Spain is on Thursday at 2pm
A global comeback. Already happy with the Olympic qualification, Settebello beat Greece in the quarterfinals and prepares for yet another challenge with Spain. “These guys moved me” says coach Sandro Campagna to Rai microphones. A match with a thousand twists ends 11-10, resolved in the thrilling final half, which opened at 8-8. Genidounias scores from a penalty, Kalogelopouros scores in numerical superiority but the VAR cancels it because time has expired, so at the restart a naivety costs dearly: we field eight players instead of seven and suffer the inevitable penalty signed by Genidounias for the 10- 8. Everything seems compromised, but when the Settebello is involved, the unthinkable can happen. And so Fondelli takes advantage of the extra man who halves the deficit, Di Somma equalizes from a penalty won thanks to a counterattack by captain Di Fulvio, and it is the latter who signs the overtaking with a “lift and shoot” 42″ from the siren. Then the last superiority granted to the world vice champions is wasted by Papanastasiou. Greece contests the refereeing, also for a key episode in the second half: with Greece ahead 4-2, Argyropoulos was sent off for brutality (the images underwater highlights a knee to Iocchi Gratta) leaving them with one man less for 4′. In that partial, Italy had gone on to lead 6-5. But the success, in the end, appears very clear. And on Thursday, at 2pm, there is the super challenge with Spain.
Unlike the last European Championships, which divided the teams into two divisions, the game is played with the traditional format: the first teams in each group advance to the quarter-finals, the second and third-placed teams advance to the round of 16. TV on Rai 2 and RaiSport.
Group A: Spain 9; Croatia 6; Australia 3; South Africa 0.
Group B: Greece 9; France 6; China 3; Brazil 0.
Group C: Serbia 9; Montenegro 5; Use 4; Japan 0.
Group D: Hungary 8; Italy 7; Romania 3; Kazakhstan 0.
Monday 5: Italy-Kazakhstan 33-3, Hungary-Romania 15-8.
Wednesday 7: Romania-Kazakhstan 25-3, Hungary-Italy 15-14 pen. (9-9).
Friday 9th: Hungary-Kazakhstan 28-1, Italy-Romania 16-10. Ranking: Hungary 8; Italy 7; Romania 3; Kazakhstan 0.
Sunday 11th: round of 16 Croatia-China 22-4, France-Australia 11-8, Montenegro-Romania 12-9, Italy-USA 13-12.
Tuesday 13th: quarterfinals Spain-Montenegro 15-12, Italy-Greece 11-10, Serbia-Croatia (17), Hungary-France (18.30).
Thursday 15: Spain-Italy semi-finals (14). Saturday 17: finals.
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