Osaka, Japan, June 10, 2018 – Japan put pressure on Italy with their strong service game to win in five sets at the Volleyball Nations League on Sunday.
Japan coach Yuichi Nakagaichi: “I realised that our spikes in our training has been improving day by day. We were tired because of the long flight from Brazil, but there were some good points to obtain the victory today. First, Yanagida’s jump serve was very stable. Second, Nishida also hit strong serves in the game. Lastly, Italy made mistakes on their jump serves and we were able to side-out easily. This is a great victory for us because we won the last match in Osaka.”
Japan captain Masahiro Yanagida: “There were difficult many difficult moments, but we played the way we wanted. We will try to keep this winning streak into the next round in Germany.”
Japan player Masahiro Sekita: “I came in midway through the match, but I’m happy to win this game. I realised that we need all the players to contribute in order to achieve victory.”
Japan player Yuji Nishida: “I’m happy to win at home. This is a huge victory for us. We were not in good shape in the first match of this round against Bulgaria, but after playing against Poland, we were able to regroup. I think this is our best performance so far.”
Italy coach Gianlorenzo Blengini: “I feel depressed with this loss. We could not receive well and we weren’t able to execute the way we wanted to. In the middle of the fourth set, we could not get enough points because of Japan’s strong serve.”
Italy captain Filippo Lanza: “I knew that today’s game would be difficult because Japan have this ‘never give up’ spirit. I feel sad to lose this game. Japan deserve today’s victory.”