30-Nov, start time: 15:00, end time: 16:35 - Attendance: 10,110

SCG	3	25	21	30	25	-	101
ITA	1	18	25	28	22	-	93

Match Description:

Blue Team victory hands title to Brazil
Despite already being confirmed as bronze medalists Serbia and Montenegro gained the consolation of beating Italy in their final match and in the process handed Brazil the 2003 World Cup title.

The victory brought the Olympic champions level on points with Italy, with nine victories from 11 games, to deny the European champions the chance of drawing level with World Cup leaders Brazil, who, with 10 successive victories, play Japan in their final game. Italy collect the silver medal on set ratio.

With the final three World Cup places practically in concrete, this game was all down to pride so both teams gave their younger players a run which made for a fascinating encounter. Serbia and Montenegro inparticular, showed some great talent with MIP Bojan Janic elusive on the serve and setter Ivan Ilic finding the regular artillery in Ivan Miljkovic and Andrea Geric comfortably. In a great set point, Goran Vujevic finally blocked to seal the first set after a superb rally.

The old guard of Paolo Cozzi and Andrea Giani got Italy back into the game at 5-1 up in the second set and some great play from setter Valerio Vermiglio helped them keep their noses in front at 16-14. Luca Tencati spiked home to make it 24-21 before Francesco Biribanti smashed home the winner to tie the game up.

The powerful right hander was again instrumental in giving Italy the lead at 12-10 with a superb block before two successive serves gave Italy a 22-18 break. But towering Andrea Geric pulled off three superb plays - block and two tips to pull Serbia and Montenegro back to 23-21 before an unbelievable error, when libero Damiano Pippi let a ball drop into court, made the score 23-22. Geric blocked again to tie the game up before two over-aggressive spikes from Alberto Cisolla completed an amazing Serbia and Montenegro comeback.

Miljkovic came into his own in the fourth set, scoring a massive 24 points for the match to lead Serbia and Montenegro home and in the process overtake Takahiro Yamamoto as the leading World Cup scorer.

Comments:

TRAVICA, Ljubomir (SCG Head Coach)
" Aiming at the Athens Olympics, against Brazil, we have to play as a team, we shouldn't focus only on attacks, but also on defense. At this moment, I think Brazil has something more than the other teams."

MILJKOVIC, Ivan (SCG Player)
" This match wasn't important for both teams, since we both got the invitation to the Olympic Games yesterday. Coaches used other players to see them play and to see what they can expect from them. For me, this game was very interesting, especially toward the end when the game got very close."

MONTALI, Gianpaolo (ITA Head Coach)
" We did not play good today. We felt that some of our starting players were not concentrated as much as they should have last night, so I tried to put young players in. The game did not go as well as I hoped. I am not happy because we could have won the game."

CISOLLA, Alberto (ITA Player)
" Today's match was an unusual game because both ITA and SCG knew that they had qualified for Athens Olympic Games before the match. Both teams didn't have enough intensity, but we knew we had to give our best and I believe we did."

Official Result:

Match statistics (P-2) - PDF