The favourites in Pool C and bronze medal winners two years ago, Italy recorded their first win (3-0; 25-20, 25-18, 25-16) against the team of Belarus. Unfortunately, all the matches played in Zadar, Croatia are without spectators, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Italian team, having beaten Belarus in their last four matches, started today’s clash without too much motivation, while Belarus had a lot of respect for their opponents. The first two sets, as a result, were very similar, with the first section of each set pretty uneventful before Italy ended up some 3, 4 points ahead and forced Belarus to take more risks.

The best Italian player of the first set was Elena Pietrini, outside spiker, who scored 9 points (90% efficiency), with 80% of positive service reception. In the end, she ended up scoring 19 points, while their captain Miriam Sylla scored 11 times and their most effective player - Italian star Paola Egonu – registered 20. That was enough to finish the match without too much stress for their team.

However, it is important to mention a very large number of unintentional mistakes of the Italian team; 8 in the first set, 7 in the second, while Belarus scored 9 points in the third. The third set was a one way street for the Italian team - which they closed with a comfortable 25-16 score.