It's always a big thing to win against Italy - said Brazil coach Bernardo Rezende
Kraków, Poland, July 13, 2016 – Brazil defeated Italy in straight sets in the first match in Pool K1 of Final Six in Kraków. Great show of Lucarelli and his teammates resulted in easy 3-0 (25-18, 25-20, 25-19) win on Wednesday’s afternoon.
Bernardo Rezende, coach of Brazil: I think we played a good match. We are working hard for serving, it is very important for every team in the world. Maybe in previous years we had problem in this element, but we are trying to fix it. We were worried before the game, because Lucarelli had a problem with his back, but now everything looks fine and we are happy. It is very important for young players, like him or Mauricio to be in the game, especially before the Olympics. Last year we didn't manage to reach the semi-finals.
Gianlorenzo Blengini, coach of Italy: First, I want to congratulate Brazil. They played so good and obviously the result is positive for them. We did not play as we wanted to. Big difference was in the serve and spike. We could not find a solution to go out from our difficult situation and they spikers could do anything they wanted to do with us. We had problem with reception and with ending in the first tempo. The efficiency of our attacks was not enough to fight tonight.
Bruno Rezende, captain of Brazil: We are of course happy with the result: we competed and won with a strong team, but we cannot be too confident because there is a long way ahead of us. Italy did not play at the maximum of their skills and we need to remember that. At the Olympic Games we are in the same pool, we will need to be focused like today and do the same.
Emanuele Birarelli, captain of Italy: It was a tough match for us. We know Brazil is one of the best teams in the world. I think serve was the key to success. They pushed a lot in serve, we were often in troubles in reception. I think Brazil is very hard team to challenge, when they are leading and playing with a lot of energy, like today. Our goal was to play with the same result, but I think any team in the world would have trouble with Brazil playing like today.