Volleyball, Italy queen of Europe. Coach Mazzanti: ‘Extraordinary’

Sylla: “We canceled Tokyo, we couldn’t wait to show who we are”

Miriam Sylla hardly believes it. He has a microphone in front, in his head he still has the last point of the European final against Serbia, the one that crowned Italy as the queen of the continent. “I can’t believe it” says the blue captain with a smile. But it’s all true: Italy won the European Championship. In Belgrade, against Serbia that had eliminated it in the quarterfinals of the Olympics, against that black beast of recent years even humiliated in front of its 20 thousand wild fans with the final 3-1 and a dominated fourth set.

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mazzanti

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Even the coach Mazzanti is almost incredulous when he speaks to RaiSport: “The girls have done a great thing – he says, struggling to put the words together -. I am emptied, it was a very tough time. Delighted for the girls who went to get him. We needed it, ”he says, referring to the disappointment of Tokyo, where Italy was convinced it could take a medal and instead returned from Japan with a bitter disappointment. “It was an incredible effort to get back on the pitch, to be able to have fun again. Nice to see the girls having fun in these last games, expressing their talent. Sylla suffered a lot, happy for her and for all the others. It has been a long summer, in which we have struggled. I think the girls have done something extraordinary ”.

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sylla

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Tokyo is also the ghost against which Sylla says that the whole blue group has been confronted. “We were looking forward to playing against Serbia – he says -. We remembered the Olympics game well, we felt a little ashamed because we knew we hadn’t played as well as we could. We wanted to prove something, we did it and I’m really happy. This medal cancels the failure of the Olympics: we didn’t give up, we came back and we won ”.

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a thought for the absent

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And it was wonderful, and significant of the spirit of the blue group, that Italvolley also brought Bosetti and Fahr’s shirts to the podium, the two blue who were absent due to injury at the continental review.

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