Simone Giannelli two steps away from the rainbow dream

The words of Simone Giannelli

The Men’s National Team is in Poland where Saturday and Sunday it will be engaged in the final act of the 20th edition of the rainbow event. Giannelli and his teammates will face Slovenia tomorrow at 9 p.m. (live TV Rai 2 and Sky Sport Action, live web Rai News.it, Rai Play, Now and volleyballworld.tv) in the semifinals. From Katowice to Katowice, then, a long journey that lasted 12 months and that will end where it all began for this young group: on Sunday, September 19 of last year, in fact, Giannelli and his teammates became European champions by beating Slovenia in the final at the end of a continental review played by absolute protagonists and surprising the entire Old Continent for how they approached the event. The European trophy, however, is a memory, yes a pleasant one but a memory nonetheless, and the young group led by Ferdinando De Giorgi is ready to play its cards at the table of the best four formations in the world that will compete for the rainbow title: one among Poland, Brazil, Slovenia and, precisely, Italy will be crowned champion. Italy made the semifinals 12 years after the previous time and for the sixth time in its history, an added source of pride given its long absence from the top positions.

Captain Simone Giannelli is aware of all this: “Let’s continue this beautiful adventure, we have arrived here to play a World Championship semifinal; we have only two days of competitions left, but the path is paradoxically still long; now we only think about this semifinal thinking of doing only our best. In front of us we will have Slovenia again, but last year’s final is a thing of the past and now it does not count anymore otherwise it would be too easy. Tomorrow we will not start on 1-0 just because we beat them last year; we are all well aware of that and in fact that game is archived; a whole year has passed and a lot has happened in that time.”