24-Nov, start time: 15:05, end time: 16:04 - Attendance: 5,100

ITA	3	25	25	25	-	-	75
EGY	0	16	16	17	-	-	49

Match Description:

Biribanti cashes in on Italian benefit
Wing spiker Francesco Biribanti helped himself to a massive 28 points as Italy hammered helpless Egypt for their sixth win in seven matches at the 2003 Men's World Cup in Okayama on Monday.

Following in the footsteps of Brazil's devastating display against Canada in the first game of the day Biribanti and the Squadra Azzurri were in devastating form using their height advantage and experience to great effect to leave Egypt, more often than not, mere spectators as Italy kept in touch with the undefeated Brazil and Serbia and Montenegro with a smashing performance.

With the stars - Matej Cernic and Andrea Sartoretti - of Sunday's straight sets win over Canada resting, Italy's big boys Luigi Mastrangelo, Francesco Biribanti (nine points for the first set) and captain Andrea Giani pounded Egypt into submission straight from the opening whistle with a succession of thunderous spikes to open a 16-12 midway through the first set and before you knew it, Mastrangelo's power serve added four more points. Paolo Cozzi backed that up with a couple of sublime blocks before Giani completed the first set action with his third spike of the third set.

The second set was much the same as Biribanti, the MIP, displayed awesome power on the spike leading Italy to a 14-8 lead, and it soon became customary to hear the groan of the 27-year-old as he flew high down the right flank to make countless aerial assaults. A further seven points from Biribanti and inspirational play from Giani on defence and Italy had sealed the second set in 17 minutes.

The third set wasn't quite as easy for Biribanti, in the opening stanza it took him four attempts to return one point in the same play, but he soon got back into the groove and helped Italy move from 12-11 ahead to 16-12. Fourteen points later and Biribanti and Italy had completed a purely awesome display to continue their charge towards an Olympic qualifying spot.

Comments:

MONTALI, Gianpaolo (ITA, Head Coach)
Before this match we were afraid, since we know that EGY got one set each from SCG and USA, and that there are some good spikers. I am very happy to have won this important match.

GIANI, Andrea (ITA, Captain)
I thought this match would be very important for us. The offense of EGY was great. Today's victory got us close to the aim that we would be within the top three.

VESELIN, Vukovic (EGY, Head Coach)
We were far behind ITA in technique and tactics. Still, we did the best we could. Overall I am satisfied with the performance of the players.

AWAD, Hamdy Elsafy (EGY, Captain)
ITA, which ranks with BRA and SCG, is a very strong team. It was a good experience for us in this match against ITA. The content itself did not seem too bad today. We are sure to make progress in the future.

Official Result:

Match statistics (P-2) - PDF