Julio Velasco: "Was that with Brazil the real final? A nonsense"

Here are the statements of Italy women’s coach Julio Velasco and some of his girls after the extraordinary tie-break victory with Brazil in the World Cup semifinal.

Julio Velasco: “One of the positive characteristics of this team is that it never gives up despite the difficulties. Fahr in the warm-up turning an ankle, Orro in the second set turning her ankle stepping on a teammate’s foot, all situations that could have knocked us down and instead the girls stayed in the match with lucidity. We cannot think that everything will be fine like last year but, instead, difficulties would have come. If in these difficulties we bring home wins in the tie-break 32-30 it will be something extraordinary as happened tonight. This group has given its best in every practice, like a team in its first steps. The others are also working well so we cannot think that everything depends solely and exclusively on us. Brazil is an outstanding team coached by a great coach with an immense volleyball tradition. To say then that this was the real World Cup final is a huge nonsense that we will never say. The strength of this team also lies in the courage to field girls who are young or who do not have much international experience. It happened with Nervini, today with Giovannini but also with others. When we sinned in lucidity we were able to compensate with the will to never give up. Tomorrow we have Turkey ahead of us for another very difficult and high-level match. Now we rest and then play our all for everything tomorrow.”

Ekaterina Antropova: “This is a team and character victory, we played for each other looking in each other’s eyes and supporting each other at every stage of the match. This attitude was the key to the match, which was difficult, as we expected, but perhaps because of that it was beautiful to bring it home.”

Myriam Sylla “We started out a little bit contracted and it showed, some memories of the semifinal against them in the Netherlands surfaced; we didn’t want a repeat and maybe we thought about it so much that we were sabotaging ourselves however we have to look at the glass half full. We were there with character and determination, we had two digs at the beginning but they didn’t give up either and they were very important for us. I am very proud of all of us.”

Sarah Fahr: “It was an incredible team game. It was not easy, we had two injuries during the game against Brazil, we were really strong in our heads. I’m so excited, it’s a dream. Now we have to reset and tomorrow it will be another battle against Turkey, whoever deserves it will win. As we did today we will all give everything together. The team is our strength”.

Alessia Orro: “We are in the final and we finally beat Brazil in a World Cup. Tomorrow will be a very difficult final but now we enjoy this team victory. We were good at staying, whoever lasts wins. Today none of us gave up”.