One defeat does not call into question Italvolley’s path

It was since the 2020 Tokyo Olympics – held in 2021 due to the pandemic – that the Italian men’s volleyball team had last lost a quarter-final. It was 3 August, and it was Argentina who beat the Azzurri in a tie-break. Looking solely at European and World Championships, however, one has to go back to 2019 to find a quarter-final defeat, when Italy were swept aside 3–0 by France in Nantes, marking the end of the Ivan Zaytsev era. Since that day, the trophy cabinet has been enriched with a European Championship win in Poland, two consecutive World Championships (again in Poland and then in the Philippines), a runners-up finish at the 2023 European Championships in Rome – following a crushing defeat in the final against Poland – and a fourth-place finish at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

To these results must also be added those of the women’s national team, which lost 15–10 in a tie-break to Turkey in the European Championship final on 6 September. Since 2020, the Italian women’s team has won a European Championship, a World Championship and an Olympic gold medal.

The two defeats, which came in quick succession just a few days apart, certainly cannot call into question a movement that sees the women’s national team top the world rankings and the men’s team in second place. Can we make assessments and reflections? Of course. Can we dampen the enthusiasm that has characterised these past few years? Absolutely not. Not least because, prior to the defeat against Finland, Italy had got off to a flying start. In the group stage, the team led by Ferdinando De Giorgi had secured five wins out of five, including clear 3–0 victories over Greece and Sweden. Finland, for its part, is proving to be the surprise of the competition, winning four of its five group matches and beating Greece in the round of 16, despite initially being ranked 17th in the world – a position that has now risen to 12th. The Marttilla brothers, Luka and Noaa, caused the Italian block major problems, whilst opposite Jeonas Jokela dominated the match. After all, there was no shortage of internal issues. First and foremost, there were several absences compared to the last World Championship. Almost a year ago, Simone Anziani officially announced his retirement from the national team. Giovanni Gargiulo, on the other hand, retired due to mental health issues. Then there was Roberto Russo, who was struggling with back problems. All this was compounded by a match in which the Azzurri never gave the impression of being in control or of being able to keep up with the Finnish pace – not to mention the fact that the defeat was decided entirely in the tie-break.

However, the elimination came as a shock, and it could hardly have been otherwise. Reaching the semi-finals was almost taken for granted, even though a warning sign had emerged with the team’s elimination from the Nations League in the summer, again at the quarter-final stage. Some have ironically tried to blame the city of Turin. In 2018, during the final stage of the six-team World Cup, Italy lost in the quarter-finals at the Inalpi Arena, where the national team led by Chicco Benigni failed to reach the semi-finals following defeats against Poland and Serbia. Eight years on, just a few kilometres away, it was the Palavela that brought back the ghosts of the past, although, of course, the circumstances are completely different. Now De Giorgi’s task is to get a team back on track straight away – a team that has one of the most prestigious records in the history of Italian sport behind it; there is no choice but to start afresh from here. Competing for the European title will be Slovenia, Poland, Finland and France. For once, without too much guilt, we can sit back and watch.