Men's Water Polo World Championships: Settebello is among the top four

Magnificent Settebello. Light-hearted, amused and with an Olympic pass in his pocket, he is now also among the top 4 teams in the world. Thursday (2pm) the semi-final match against Spain. After the United States, Greece was also knocked out 11-10 with the only goal by captain Francesco Di Fulvio who decided it in the last minute by rising two meters above the water and hitting hard behind Zerdevas. Marziali and Cannella are out, Renzuto is in and was not later disqualified. It was an authentic battle with no holds barred from every point of view. Other than the simple match of the European Championships in Zagreb (15-8).

The plot of the race is troubled. At 4-2 for the Greeks, the VAR in underwater mode certified Argyropoulos' knee on Iocchi Gratta's cheekbone in the second period. Very severe sanction with the expulsion of the Greek, the penalty converted by the 19 year old Condemi from Catania and 4' in numerical inferiority for the selection of Athens. The match took a clear turn with Italy taking advantage of it by scoring 4 goals, 1 goal every minute (a brace from Condemi, Presciutti and Echenique). Kalogeropoulos limited the damage by scoring the fifth goal. After 16 minutes, Italy is ahead 6 to 5. Campagna asks his players for a sort of cage on Genidounias, their best player in the seventh World Cup. An wrath of God with his 3 goals and then assists and great defenses. The match accelerates the pace for him in the third 8'. Damonte places a left-handed curling shot of rare beauty (7-5); Nikolaidis and Vlachopoulos aren't up for it and put their teammates back in the running (7-7). There is a need to improve concentration in actions with numerical superiority: only 2 goals on 10 occasions at the beginning of the fourth period. Velotto and Vlachopoulos make it 8-all.

Then Greece breaks away in the fourth and infinite period: Genidounias scores the ninth and 10th goal on a penalty for a stupid thing by the Italians, who were immediately chastised and went into the water with 8 men. At this point everything happens: Genidounias goes out again after reaching the foul limit. Fondelli closes the gap and Di Somma equalizes the score with 100″ to go (10-10). The feat then goes to Di Fulvio from Pescara who, after a mysterious 0 out of 7, sends Italy into orbit. «The team thrilled me – said coach Sandro Campagna -; Greece is coming off 4 days of rest and has only had one real match in the group. The others were bathrooms. These types of matches are the best training in view of the Olympics.”