Italy have beaten France by 10 goals, and progress to the Semi-finals of the world championships.
Italy were untroubled by France in the first quarter-final of the day in Budapest, as Sofia Giustini, Italy’s number six, netted six goals. The Setterosa weren’t particularly good today, but they didn’t really need to be.
France couldn’t compete at times in the game, particularly in defence when the Italians made their drop on centre work. At the back, the quality of Giustini (6), Silvia Avegno (4) and Chiara Tabani (2) was simply too much.
France struggled to really threaten the goal. Today it was their captain, Louise Guillet, who used all of her experience, to lead the scoring by netting four goals. France will be satisfied though with the position they are in. They are still in the top eight, and may still improve on that classification.
For Carlo Silipo, his side know they will either face Spain or the United States. It is a tough draw, but with the form Italy are in, they will be confident in their ability to compete against the top teams.
Italy 17-7 France (3-2, 4-1, 6-1, 4-3)
Italy: L. Teani, C. Tabani 2, C. Marletta 2, S. Avegno 3, E. Queirolo, S. Giustini 6, D. Picozzi 1, R. Biaconi 1, G. Emmolo 1, V. Palmieri, G. Galardi, G. Viacava 1, C. Banchelli
France: C. Vidal, E. Millot 1, G. Fitaire, C. Bouloukbachi, L. Guillet 4, K. Benlekbir, J. Dhalluin, A. Battu, E. Vernoux 2, V. Bahia, C. Radosavljevic, A. Daule, A. Collas
Italy took the lead after a minute, as a clever Sofia Giustini lob from the left made Anne Collas pay for being a long way off her line.
It took a few attacks for France to find their way in the match, but the French didn’t really seem to struggle with a quite lethargic drop from the Italians, who failed to prevent the entry pass into centre.
It was good fortune that gave France their opener, as a mix up at the substitution from Picozzi and Queirolo gave Juliette Dhalluin a certain penalty goal.
But for some inconsistent defending from the Italians, they carried threat going forward. Despite some wayward attempts from Picozzi and Palmieri, Sofia Giustini found the roof of the net from range, to restore the Setterosa’s lead.
However, Ema Vernoux is also quite handy from range, and her effort from distance was misjudged by Banchelli in the Italian goal, giving France the equalizer.
But no sooner did the French have parity, the Italians were back in the lead. The Italians scored from another lob, something they clearly feel they can exploit, and it was Claudia Marletta who made it 3-2.
Even though France got level at 3-3 into the second period, the Italians pressed on , pulling away from France – who were very fortunate that they didn’t trail by more by the end of the half.
Early on, two attempts from Giulia Viacava should have probably ended with a goal – the first was an excellent close-range save from Collas, while the second struck the frame of the goal. The French equalizer was seemingly out of nothing, but Ema Vernoux received a decent pass out wide, and Caterina Banchelli couldn’t keep out her low shot to the near post.
But the Italians ended the quarter well, netting four unanswered goals, two from Silvia Avegno and two beautiful extra-player shots courtesy of Sofia Giustini – her third and fourth of the game. The first from Avegno was on the powerplay from Camelia Boloukbachi’s dismissal. The second, practically from the same position on the left, finished off a swift Italian counter attack.
If France wanted to have any chance of getting back into the game in the second period, they desperately needed to start the third period well. However, two quick goals for Italy put real daylight between the two teams. Tabani finished well on 2m from a well crafted set-play, before a simple long ball over the top from Caterina Banchelli found the hungry goal-scorer Sofia Giustini, who netted her 5th of the match.
After a few limp passages of play from both sides, Italy once again showed their class. Silvia Avegno firstly measured a delightful shot on the left-hand side, clipping the right-hand post before going in. Claudia Marletta then also scored magnificently, with her shot from a long way out struck the underside of the bar before beating a helpless Collas in-between Les Bleus goal.
While France had been relatively successful in feeding the centre-forward in the first half, the Italian drop seemed to have improved, allowing them to turn the ball over and score.
Following the trend of goals coming in pairs, Italy made it 12 and 13. with Viacava and Picozzi both showing their shooting skills around the blocks into the bottom right-hand corner.
With little more than a minute left in the quarter, France did beat Laura Teani – who had bee subbed in for Banchelli. Viviane Bahia’s shot hit the bar, but Louise Guillet was on hand to tuck away the rebound.
At the beginning of the last period, Emilien Bugeaud’s France showed desire. They were quite fortunate in netting the first goal of the last period when Estelle Millot’s harmless shot was diverted past Teani by Guilia Emmolo. There was nothing fortunate about the second French goal though, as some beautiful interplay between Vernoux and Guillet lead to the latter to finding space on the left, before dispatching from close range.
But the Italians, who seemed like they were totally in control of when they wanted to score, hit back with three scores. Chiara Tabani converted well in the pit after a strong display of strength, before Giustini and Biaconi both converted to give Italy a 10 goal lead (16-6).
Carlo Silipo called an unnecessary time out, but it did the trick for Guilia Emmolo, who slotted home to the bottom left-hand corner of Chloe Vidal, the substitute French goalkeeper.
Louise Guillet scored France’s 7th goal of the game, and the last action of the match, from a nicely executed lob.
Camelia Bouloukbachi (France) – “I think we started pretty strong, we were really competing. It is disappointing that we lost, but i think we did a pretty good job of playing together. I know we are making progress, and we are getting better as a team.”
Roberta Bianconi (Italy) – “We were ready to play at the beginning. We were relaxed, but it could be difficult. They started really good and put us in a difficult situation. We were a little stressful though, after six days of not playing, but we calmed our mind and did what we could do. We know any of the teams we will meet in the next match will be hard games, but we don’t care who will meet. We will just think about our jobs and what we have to do, and to be totally in the game.”
Emilien Bugeaud (France) – “We had a good start, a big hole during the middle of the game, but then we pulled ourselves together and we started again to put in some effort. Italy deserved the victory, they were better prepared, so in the end we showed some good things, but it wasn’t enough. We will go back and try to work out what is missing in this kind of game.”
Carlo Silipo (Italy) – ” I am not satisfied for our game today. I am satisfied that we are in the semi-final, but we must change our approach and our mentality. The next game is a semi-final at the World Championships, so it is normal it will be difficult, but we will look at the game (United States vs Spain). For me it is the first time to watch live the USA team. To play the USA team is a great opportunity, they play water polo very strong, very fast, exciting also. I will study from them”
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