The world dream of the Setterosa is over

The world dream of the Setterosa is over

Italy women’s water polo’s dreams of glory are snuffed out at the finest hour. In Fukuoka, the Setterosa was beaten 9-8 by the Netherlands in the first semifinal of the world championships and will now have to settle for playing in the final for the bronze medal against Australia, which lost 12-10 in the second semifinal against Spain.

It was a pity because despite another fine performance after the feat in the quarterfinals against the United States, Carlo Silipo’s girls were unable to repeat themselves also because of a crossbar hit by Dafne Bettini at the last second and which denied them the tie and the subsequent overtime.

These are Silipo’s statements at the end of the match: “We had difficulty finding the way of the goal in the last period, but Italy comes out of the World Cup with its head held high, with another excellent performance, aware of its qualities. I didn’t like the two goals we got in the first half, after that we worked better in attack and defense.”