Italy recorded their third victory in as many matches at the Men’s EuroVolley, with middle blocker Pardo Mati producing an exceptional 22-point performance against Slovakia. Elsewhere, Ukraine defeated hosts Bulgaria, Finland overcame Belgium in a five-set thriller and Italy’s previous victory over Greece attracted a strong television audience.
Men’s EuroVolley: Italy
Italy maintained their perfect start to the 2026 Men’s EuroVolley with a 3-1 victory over Slovakia at the PalaPanini in Modena.
Ferdinando De Giorgi’s team won 25-17, 25-27, 25-10 and 25-19 in one hour and 57 minutes, with 4,392 spectators in attendance.
Pardo Mati delivered an outstanding performance in the middle after replacing Gianluca Galassi in the starting line-up. Mati finished as Italy’s leading scorer with 22 points, an exceptional total for a middle blocker.
Yuri Romanò and Mattia Bottolo contributed 16 points apiece, while Patrik Ihnat and Michal Gulak led Slovakia with 12 each.
Italy converted 70% of their attacks and recorded 11 blocks to Slovakia’s four. The visitors disrupted Italy’s rhythm by winning a closely contested second set, but the hosts responded emphatically, dominating the third 25-10 before completing the victory in four sets.
Slovakia finished with a 44% success rate in attack, while both teams committed 19 service errors.
De Giorgi continued to rotate his squad, starting Gabriele Laurenzano at libero and later giving playing time to Galassi, Luca Porro and Alessandro Michieletto.
The result leaves Italy unbeaten following victories over Sweden, Greece and Slovakia. After a rest day, they will face the Czech Republic in what is expected to be a more demanding test.
Earlier in the day, Volleyball.it reported that Michieletto was in excellent physical condition after several weeks of individual training, although he still lacked the match sharpness required to take on a full starting role.
His brief appearance and two points against Slovakia marked further progress in his return to competitive action. De Giorgi believes the outside hitter could make an important contribution during the later stages of the tournament.
Men’s EuroVolley: Around the Pools
Ukraine produced one of the day’s most notable results by defeating hosts Bulgaria 3-1 in Sofia.
Oleh Plotnytskyi led Ukraine with 23 points, while Aleksandar Nikolov scored a match-high 27 for Bulgaria. Ukraine also served nine aces and took advantage of 24 Bulgarian service errors.
The match was watched by 11,689 spectators.
There was another five-set contest in Tampere, where Finland defeated Belgium 3-2 in front of 12,338 spectators.
Aaro Jokela scored 24 points and Luka Marttila added 23 for the hosts, helping Finland overcome a 25-point performance from Belgium’s Sam Deroo. Finland converted 54% of their attacks and recorded eight aces.
The Czech Republic also required five sets to beat Sweden, recovering from two sets down before winning the tie-break 15-13.
Germany surrendered a two-set advantage but eventually overcame Romania 3-2, while Denmark defeated the Netherlands in straight sets. Poland and France also recorded 3-0 victories, against Israel and Turkey respectively.
Italy’s Victory Over Greece Attracts Strong TV Audience
Italy’s 3-0 victory over Greece on Friday attracted an average audience of 1.512 million viewers on Rai 2, representing a 10.8% share.
A further 212,000 viewers watched the match on Sky Sport Uno.
The victory was Italy’s second of the tournament, with Daniele Lavia scoring 15 points and Romanò contributing 14.
Two closely contested 25-23 sets were followed by a more comfortable 25-16 third, setting the stage for Saturday’s victory over Slovakia. Italy converted 59% of their attacks against Greece and held a 5-2 advantage in blocks.
