EuroVolleyW 2023: Pool B final standings, Italy first, Bulgaria second, Croatia eliminated

Undisputed dominance of Italy in Pool B, five 3-0 wins for Davide Mazzanti's team and first place in the standings. Behind the Azzurre Bulgaria, Romania and Switzerland, with Bosnia & Herzegovina and Croatia eliminated.

Last two games at Palazzetto dello Sport Gianni Asti in Torino in EuroVolley 2023 Pool B, two results which set the final standings of the Pool.

With Bosnia & Herzegovina and Croatia already eliminated from Eight-Finals, today’s games set the second place spot, with Bulgaria who needed to win at least two sets versus Switzerland to secure second place in Pool B standings.

It was a good one for Bulgaria, who defeated 3-1 Switzerland concluding the Pool in second place with four wins and only one loss versus Italy, a great performance in the tournament for Lorenzo Micelli's team.

Best scorer of the game was Bulgarian hammer Radostina Marinova with 22 points, while for Switzerland the top was Maja Storck with 19 points.

In last game of the Pool defending champs Italy stunned Croatia, once again a 3-0 win for the Azzurre, with Davide Mazzanti who put on court players who haven’t played too much in the previous games.

For Italian national team outstanding performance for outside spiker Loveth Omoruyi, who scored 15 points, and as in the opening game at Arena di Verona, it was a great performance also for Alice Degradi, 14 points, once again a factor for Italian attack.

Best scorer for Croatia was Andrea Mihaljevic with 13 points.

The Pool B teams qualified for Eight-Finals, which will take place 26th and 27th August in Firenze are Italy, Bulgaria, Romania and Switzerland.

It was an outstanding Pool for defending champs Italy with five 3-0 wins over all the opponents, good performance also for Bulgaria, who lost only versus Italy, and good result reached by Romania and Switzerland.

Lauren Bertolacci's team grabbed an Eight-Final’s spot with talent, eyes of the tiger and personality, coming back from a bad start (no wins and two losses), by winning two fundamental games versus Romania and Croatia, clinching an Eight-Finals' spot for the first time in history.

Despite two tie break wins Bosnia & Herzegovina got out of the next round, but two wins in European Championships are a good result for the Balkans.

Big disappointment for Croatia, who lost all the five games in Pool B, gaining only one point in the tie break versus Bosnia & Herzegovina.

It was a very exciting and balanced Pool.

Except for the games won by Italy (all 3-0), all the games of Pool B ended with 3-1 or 3-2 score, every single game was a battle between teams, who never gave up all tournament long.

The Eight-Finals for Pool B’s team will take place on 26th and 27th August at Palazzo Wanny in Firenze, facing the best four teams of Pool D, which took place in Estonia.