Water Polo World Cup, Setterosa: 24-2 to South Africa, waiting for Greece

The maximum with the minimum effort. Another goleada that could serve to close the group in command. After the 27-1 against Argentina, in the second day of the women’s world tournament comes the 24-2 against South Africa. Little indicative test and match archived already after two times (9-1) despite the many mistakes in attack by Setterosa. Four by Giustini, hat-tricks by Picozzi and Palmieri, world debut for Gant (with two goals), from the third time Condorelli in place of Banchelli between the posts. No goals conceded by the blues out of five numerical inferiorities. It will be the match against Greece on Thursday that will assign the primacy and therefore the pass for the quarterfinals without going through the round of 16.

COMMENTS

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Coach Carlo Silipo said to the Rai microphones: “It’s never easy to keep concentration high in these matches, but the girls were good at coming out at a distance, after such-and-such an approach. I’m really appreciating the spirit in the group: I all want to reach my goal. Now let’s reset and immediately put our heads in the decisive match for this phase. It would be essential to win to have a less treacherous path.” That is to avoid the United States win-all. Adds Sofia Giustini. “We haven’t spent too much energy. We know how important the match against Greece is, we can certainly win it, but we’ll need to be perfect.” The great goal, beyond the medals, remains the Olympic qualification for Paris, granted to the two finalists from Fukuoka.

ITALY: Banchelli, C.Tabani 1, Galardi, Avegno 2, Giustini 4, Bettini 4, Picozzi 3, Bianconi 1, Palmieri 3, Marletta 1, Gant 2, Viacava 2, Condorelli. All. Silipo.

SOUTH AFRICA: Maartens, MacDonell 1, Thornton-Dibb, Motau, Sileno, Muller, January, Zondo, Versfeld, MacLeod, Meecham 1, White, Gando. All. Barrett.

REFEREES:McCall (USA) and Kurosaki (Japan).

NOTE: sup. no. Italy 6 (5 goals), South Africa 5 (0).

Group C. Sunday 16: Italy-Argentina 27-1, Greece-South Africa 24-2.

Tuesday 18: Italy-South Africa 24-2, Greece-Argentina 21-2.

Classification: Italy, Greece 6; South Africa, Argentina 0.

Thursday 20: Argentina-South Africa (2), Greece-Italy (3.30).

Saturday 22nd round, Monday 24th quarterfinals, Wednesday 26th semifinals, Friday 28th finals.

The other groups:China, France, USA, Australia (A); Spain, Israel, Holland, Kazakhstan (B); Canada, New Zealand, Hungary, Japan (D).

The formula: the former directly to the quarterfinals, second and third to the round of 16.