Italy beats Slovakia 3-1 at Eurovolley 2026 to secure round of 16 spot

Knockout qualification secured in Modena

Italy earned a third consecutive victory in Pool A of the men's European Volleyball Championship by defeating Slovakia 3-1 at the PalaPanini in Modena. The result mathematically guarantees head coach Ferdinando De Giorgi's side a place in the round of 16, scheduled to take place in Turin. Playing in front of more than 4,000 spectators, Italy built on earlier 3-0 sweeps against Sweden in Naples and Greece in Modena. The team remains at the top of Pool A as preliminary play continues.

Stumble in the second set

The match began with Italy establishing early control in the opening set, taking leads of 4-2 through Mattia Bottolo and 8-3 via a block from Giovanni Sanguinetti before closing the set 25-17 on an attack from Pardo Mati. Slovakia responded in the second set behind outside hitter Ihnat, taking advantage of mounting Italian service errors and defensive lapses at the net. After Italy believed it had won the set 26-24, a video challenge ruled that the ball did not touch the antenna, allowing Slovakia to claim the set 27-25 and hand Italy its first dropped set of the tournament. Opposite hitter Yuri Romanò addressed the team's temporary drop in performance after the match.

“It was a tiring match, but we did well to take it home. In the second we played very poorly, both on serve and emotionally. Then we regained our focus and restarted.”

Decisive response in the final sets

Italy altered the momentum immediately in the third set, conceding only 10 points to Slovakia. Middle blocker Pardo Mati scored 7 points in the third set alone across serve, attack, and block, while Alessandro Michieletto entered at 18-8 to record his first points of the tournament after being sidelined by physical issues since January. Michieletto secured a block to reach 22-10 before Italy closed the set 25-10. In the fourth set, Luca Porro replaced Daniele Lavia, and an ace from Bottolo extended the Italian lead to 14-8 before a service error by Maknyi ended the contest at 25-19. Slovakia scored a combined total of 29 points across the final two sets.

Lineup rotations and top individual scorers

De Giorgi utilized the match to give playing time to alternate starters, deploying 20-year-old middle blocker Pardo Mati from the start alongside libero Gabriele Laurenzano, who replaced Fabio Balaso. Mati finished as the match top scorer with 22 points, including 6 winning blocks. Bottolo and Romanò also reached double figures, contributing 16 points each to the Italian offense under the distribution of setter and captain Simone Giannelli.

Pardo Mati22

Mattia Bottolo16

Yuri Romanò16

Pardo Mati

22 points

Mattia Bottolo

16 points

Yuri Romanò

16 points

Data from the article text

Upcoming fixtures in Pool A

Italy has a rest day on Monday before returning to the PalaPanini on Tuesday, 15 September, to face the Czech Republic at 21:05. The Czech team enters the fixture with two victories from their first two matches under assistant coach Marco Camperi. Italy will then conclude pool play on Thursday against Slovenia, who defeated Sweden 3-0 with set scores of 25-16, 25-21, and 25-12 in other Pool A action on Sunday.