Roma, Italy, June 24, 2016 - Italy defeated Australia in straight sets (25-15, 29-27, 25-17) in Pool E1 encounter at the World League with Ivan Zaytsev scoring match-high 15 points.
The next joint best-scorers for Italy were Luca Vettori and Filippo Lanza with 11 points while Nathan Roberts and Paul Carrol scored 8 points each for Australia.
Italy have won their last three World League matches, all in straight sets while Australia have not won any set in this year's competition.
The match took a precise direction from the beginning, with Italy showing a good cohesion in all its sections. Australia tried in the second set to contrast the Italian game most of all with his opposite Paul Carroll, and setting its receiving section in a better way. But in the whole match their game become too predictable and with too many direct mistakes.
The first and third set had no story, because Italian lead has never been questioned. Italy found a great performance thanks to their setter Simone Giannelli. Another important factor was not much sharp serving from Australia team. Italy registered 11 final blocks: Matteo Piano and Emanuele Birarelli outclassed their opponents in this aspect.