Summer once again means Italian satisfaction for the athletes of the Delta Group Porto Viro: the national teams Mattia Eccher and Lorenzo Magliano put the silver medal around their necks at the European Under 22 men’s volleyball championships, held in Holland.
The Apeldoorn final was forbidden to the faint of heart, Italy overcame a two-set deficit against France but had to surrender at the end of an endless tie-break, with the regret of having had five match points available: 2-3 the score in favor of the transalpines with partial scores of 19-25, 20-25, 25-14, 30-28, 20-22.
The French selection was the only one capable of beating the Azzurri (3-1) in the group stage, in the other two matches of the qualifying pool the team coached by Vincenzo Fanizza had instead won 3-1 against both the Czech Republic and over Portugal, going on to beat highly rated Poland with the same score in the semi-final.
For both Eccher and Magliano, the silver medal won in Holland adds to the gold medal two years ago, respectively, at the Under 20 and Under 18 European Championships. Eccher, for his part, can also boast a silver medal at the Under 21 world championship ( obtained in 2023), while Magliano could soon have the opportunity to replenish his blue palmares: from 26 August to 7 September he will most likely take part in the Under 20 European Championships in Serbia and Greece as captain of Italy.
