Italy and Ukraine

The  Women’s  European U-19 Water Polo  Championship opened with a match between Group B teams:  Italy and Ukraine.  The Italian team was considered to be favorites  in this match long before the beginning of the game.   First of all, Italy has deep-rooted traditions of water polo, secondly, the  team has already been tested in World League finals.  The Italian superiority in experience and  technical skill  was obvious from the very beginning of the match.  During the first attack, the “white caps”  forced  the Ukrainians  to break the rules and get a 5-meter  penalty  shot bringing Italy ahead.  

The advantage in swimming skills was that trump that was really played well by Italians.  Ukrainians  just could not keep up with their speedy competitors and made many mistakes  in positioning which resulted in Italians’ getting the space they needed.

Team Ukraine managed to hit the Italian net  only twice – in the first period and in the closing one just a minute and a half before the final whistle. In all other periods Italians dominated scoring nine in the second period, another seven in the third and eight in the fourth. The destruction of the Ukrainians ended when the score was 29-2.