Brazil set up men's volleyball final clash with Italy

Brazil swept Russia 3-0 in a rematch of the London Olympic final here Friday evening to set up a clash with Italy in Sunday's men's volleyball final of the Rio Games.

The Brazilians, who had finished runners-up to Russia at the London Games four years ago, took the 25-21, 25-20 and 25-17 victory in one hour and 23 minutes.

Wallace de Souza led Brazil with 18 points through 13 kills, four blocks and one ace with Ricardo Lucarelli adding 10.

Maxim Mikhaylov had 16 points to lead the scoring of Russia, who gave away 25 points through errors.

Italy will be playing in their first Olympic Games final since Athens 2004 and their third overall historically, after an intense and spectacular 3-2 (30-28, 26-28, 9-25, 25-22, 15-9) win over the Beijing 2008 gold medalists United States.

In an amazing performance, with rallies that really have to be seen to be believed, Italy countered the United States's prowess in blocking (16 stuffs to 7) with an exceptional serving performance of 10 aces to 5.

"I always say that we are satisfied with the result after a victory but today we are also very emotional by the way we came to this victory because winning a match like this is very important for us," said Italy coach Gianlorenzo Blengini.

"I think today the teams have played more than a match because the match today had different phases where the direction of the match seems to have a clear ending but then things changed.

"I think that maturity and the quality of both teams to not give up, to always fight to the end created an incredible match with high tension," he said.

Ivan Zaytsev led Italy with 21 points and Filippo Lanza and Osmany Juantorena added 16 and 14 points respectively.

The United States will play Russia in the bronze medal match on Sunday.

Source : XINHUA