Serbia continued their good run in Poland without any major problems against Italy
Lodz, Poland, September 10, 2014 - Serbia began in a perfect way their second round campaign after a convincing win over Italy 3-0 (25-19, 29-27, 25-22) to improve to 9 points and place in Pool E main positions.
Key points
• Serbia now stretched their winning streak in Poland to 5 wins.
• It was also the fifth win for Serbia over Italy in World Championship matches.
• The overall record belongs to the Serbian side by 31-24.
• Italy have dropped to six defeats in their last eight games at the competition.
Aleksandar Atanasijevic topped the scorers’ list with 18 points, well joined by Nikola Kovacevic who added 12. Italy, unable to count with their bomber Ivan Zaytsev, was led by Luca Vettori’s 13 kills, while Simone Buti contributed with 5 stuff blocks and a total of 10 points.
Serbia quickly grabbed a 3-0 lead with Lisinac blocking hard and Italy showed some focus problems which prevented them to get closer. Atanasijevic started to do some damage and Nikola Kovacevic teamed up to give the Serbs full control of the game (13-8). It was just a matter of consistency for Serbia as they progressed to the final 25-19, after a block from Marko Podrascanin.
Podrascanin reappeared in the next chapter to spur his side (11-7) and that distance remained for a while, but the Azzurri bounced back with good serves from Dragan Travica and the scores tied at 16 points each. Atanasijevic fired an ace to restore the Serbian lead (20-19) and Nikola Jovovic gave the team two set balls with a block, but Italy survived to 24-24. In a close ending, Atanasijevic nailed two counterattacks in a row and sealed the set by 29-27.
For the third time, Serbia broke free using the middle of the net, as Lisinac unfolded a great block over Vettori by 8-4. However, Italy narrowed the gap headed by Buti and Serbia failed a couple of times to open another close track (16-16). Atanasijevic confirmed himself as the key man for Serbia at 21-20, Milos Nikic joined afterwards and a triple block over Jiri Kovar wrapped up the game by 25-22.