Italy took the lead at deuce. Italy advanced to the quarterfinals of the men’s volleyball quarterfinals at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games with a 3-2 (20-25 23-25 27-25 26-24 17-15) victory over Japan in a tightly contested match that went to a full set on Friday (June 5) at the Arena Paris Sud in Paris, France.
Italy dropped the first and second sets in straight sets to Japan. They were backed into a corner in the third set, trailing 21-24, but their blocking came alive with Alessandro Micheletto, their main outside hitter, to clinch the set.
Italy had the last laugh in the fourth set after winning a deuce. But Japan fought back with Yuki Ishikawa and Yuji Nishida’s left and 안전한 파워볼사이트 right doubles to take a 4-2 lead at the start of the fifth set, and led 8-6 midway through the set.
The Italians didn’t go down without a fight, using their height to fend off the Japanese attack and exchanging blows with Micheletto and Yuri Romano to make it 14-13 late in the set and face match point. However, the Japanese answered with back-to-back spikes from Ishikawa and Nishida to get to deuce and take a 15-14 lead.
However, Italy, who had deuce situations in the previous three sets, came from behind to take the lead over Japan. Back-to-back points at 15-15 put an end to the long match. For Japan, it was a frustrating moment when they were up 24-21 in the third set and couldn’t get the final point.
Micheletto was the top scorer for Italy with 24 points. Romano and Daniele Navia added 19 points each, while middle blockers Gianluca Galassi and Roberto Russo combined for 21 points and eight blocks to help Italy reach the quarterfinals.
Ishikawa had a team-high 32 points, while Nishida and Takahashi Ran added 22 and 16, respectively, but their efforts were overshadowed by the quarterfinal loss. Italy had a clear advantage over Japan in the height department on the day. They had a huge 15-2 advantage in blocking.
Prior to the Italy-Japan match, Poland defeated Slovenia in straight sets 3-1 (25-20 24-26 25-19 25-20) in the quarterfinals.