Water polo, Europeans: Setterosa by measure, it’s semifinal

Italy beats Hungary 12-11

Italy women’s water polo won on Tuesday evening the pass to the semifinals of the European Water Polo Championships being held in the Netherlands: the Setterosa team coached by Carlo Silipo beat Hungary 12-11 in an intense and balanced quarterfinal played in the Eindhoven pool. In the semifinals now are the hosts of the Netherlands, the other challenge è instead the one between Spain and Greece.

For the Azzurri, Roberta Bianconi scored four times, Silvia Avegno and Claudia Marletta with three goals each, and Dafne Bettini with a double. The Hungarians’ scoreboard, on the other hand, recorded Krisztina Garda’s poker, Rita Keszthelyi’s and Vanda Valyi’s doubles, as well as individual goals scored by Rebecca Parkes, Dora Leimeter and Natasha Rybanska.

Thanks to the success, Italy also remains in the running for the Olympic pass, which will be awarded in this edition of the European Championships to the best-ranked team other than the Netherlands or Spain, which have already qualified. In practice, it will need to get a better result than Greece to already obtain the Olympic pass at the end of this continental review (two other places will be up for grabs at the World Championships in Doha).

To reach the semifinals, Italy made it through Group B as the runner-up, behind Spain and ahead of France and Israel.Thanks to the very fact of being ranked among the top two, coach Silipo’s national team was able to play directly in the quarters, without going through the playoffs. The semifinal against the Netherlands è scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 11, also in Eindhoven.