Turkey retains European Championship in volleyball, beats Italy 3–2
Turkey rallied at home to beat Italy 3–2 in Istanbul and win a second straight European Championship.
Turkey successfully defended its European Championship crown after a dramatic 3–2 victory over Italy in the final held in Istanbul.
Italy started strongly, taking the opening set 25:16 and then moving ahead 2–1 after a convincing 25:12 win in the third set.
Home crowd and a late run decided the title
Turkey showed resilience in front of the home crowd, winning the fourth set 25:22 to force a decisive tie-break. In the fifth set the hosts produced a key run to reach an 8:4 lead and preserved it to close out the match 15:10.
Melissa Vargas finished as the most prolific scorer for the champions with 28 points, while Zehra Güneş added 12. For Italy, Paola Egonu also totaled 28 points but could not guide her team to the trophy.
This is Turkey’s second consecutive European title, after they defeated Serbia in the final two years ago. Earlier the same day, Serbia beat Poland 3–1 in the bronze-medal match to take third place.
Photo: CEV.eu
