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The 2026 European men’s volleyball championship began with a big party, staged in the Arena set up in Piazza del Plebiscito. Rain, which fell a few minutes before kick-off, postponed the start of the match by 30 minutes.
In the evocative setting, the 6,000 spectators present (sold out) in the stands pushed the Italian men’s national team to victory against Sweden 3-0 (25-22, 25-21, 25-17). A show on and off the pitch, opened with the performance, before the match, of Planet Funk which was witnessed by the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella, applauded by the whole Arena upon his entrance, the ministers Giancarlo Giorgetti and Andrea Abodi, the president of CONI Luciano Buonfiglio. With them, the president of the FIPAV Giuseppe Manfredi, the president of the FIVB Fabio Azevedo, the president of the CEV Roko Sikirić and the president of the Serie A Volleyball League Claudio Durigon, together with the institutional leaders of the City of Naples (Mayor Gaetano Manfredi) and of the Campania Region (President Roberto Fico).
Ferdinando De Giorgi’s Italian national team, as predicted, made their debut match against an opponent who showed good overall quality, led on the bench by coach Gido Vermeulen. Italy showed a good game, well orchestrated by captain Giannelli, who distributed the balls to all his attackers.
Italy will now move to Modena, home of Pool A, where they will take the field again on Saturday 12 September against Greece: 9.05pm, live on Rai2, Sky Sport Arena, DAZN and streaming on NOW, eurovolley.tv and rainews.it.
As the starting line-up, the Italian coach relied on Giannelli as setter, Romanò as opposite, Lavia and Bottolo as spikers, Galassi and Sanguinetti as center backs, with Balaso as libero. On the other side of the net, Sweden on the pitch with Ekstrand, Brink, Johansson, Enlund, Link, Ekman and Andersson libero.
The match
The first set started in the name of Italy with Romanò first and Bottolo then leading to +3 (4-1). As the action progressed, Sweden regained strength until finding -1 (7-6). Subsequently Romanò, well guided by Giannelli, put the ball on the ground to make it 10-7. In the subsequent phases, Italy continued to control the game and an attack by Lavia gave the score 14-9, which forced the Sweden coach to interrupt the game with a time out. Upon returning to the court, the inertia of the set did not change and after a timid comeback attempt by the Swedes, Bottolo’s block led 22-17. At 22-18 the second interruption of the game due to the resumption of rain. After about thirty minutes the game resumed. In the final Bottolo puts the ball on the ground (24-20) and on the third set point Italy closes with a first half by Galassi 25-22. Set which, including the interruption, ended after 63 minutes.
Second set started with the same sextet and characterized by a certain balance (3-3, 5-5). Yuri Romanò charges the Azzurri and scores the +2 point (7-5). As the minutes passed, Sweden found a new draw at 9-9 and the subsequent overtaking (10-11). At this point coach De Giorgi called the first time out of the set. Upon returning to the field, Bottolo’s ace gives Italy the new lead (12-11). At this point the Azzurri tried the first extension (17-15) with Lavia, but the Swedes mended the situation and found the equalizer (17-17), before the new Italian acceleration which with Sanguinetti found the +2 (19-17) and Giannelli’s ace the +3 (20-17). At the end of the set Italy continued to hold the lead until 25-21. Italy 2, Sweden. Between the second and third set new musical performance with Planet Funk.
In the third set, Italy made a rocket start, immediately making the gap +5 (7-2). The set slipped away without too many problems and at 20-16 Alessandro Michieletto made his debut on the court. In the final, Italy was applauded by the whole Arena and finished 25-17 with Lavia. Italy 3, Sweden 0.
At the end of the match, the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella took to the field to greet the Italian team.
SCORESHEET: ITALY-SWEDEN 3-0 (25-22, 25-21, 25-17)
ITALY: Galassi 7, Giannelli 2, Bottolo 9, Sanguinetti 12, Romanò 13, Lavia 11, Balaso (L). Michieletto, Sbertoli, Sani. Ne: Laurenzano, Rychlicki, Porro, Mati. All. De Giorgi.
SWEDEN: Link 8, Enlund 9, Johansson 6, Brink 2, Ekstrand 8, Ekman 5, Andersson (L). Leijon, Algulin 1, Berkefelt, Gruvaeus, Von Sydow. Ne: Fransson, Eriksson. All. Vermeulen.
Set duration: 1.02′, 26′, 26′
Italy: 6 a, 16 bs, 6 mv, 21 et
Sweden: 3 a, 13 sc, 4 mv, 21
STATEMENTS
Ferdinando De Giorgi: “We were protagonists of a unique event, we are proud to have played this match. President Mattarella was there to see us at the opening of the tournament and this gave us great pride. The beauty of Naples and the fans were truly a spectacle. I must say that the boys were very good, we trained their ability to adapt. The attitude and availability they had was very important. It will be a European Championship where there will be many particular situations and having reacted already this evening, all together, was important. Rain and wind were somewhat particular situations. The boys always tried to do their best.
Yuri Romanò: “This evening was unique as an event not only because of the weather. I think we will talk about it for a long time. Even the pre-match was incredible, then in the presence of the President of the Republic Mattarella everything was even more beautiful. Happy to see an arena like this outdoors with 6000 people inside. What was strangest were the interruptions, because obviously indoors we never have to interrupt due to weather conditions. We had to warm up two or three times every time we we recovered. At the beginning, even the wind didn’t help us, but then in the end everything went better and we even saw some good volleyball, we brought home this important result and a clear 3-0 that we needed to start this European championship well.”