A trio of red and whites in full swing in the final phase of the Volleyball Nations League. This morning, the three Cucine Lube Civitanova players present at the VNL 2025 Finals wearing the Italian national team jersey reached the Semifinals. In China, libero Fabio Balaso, spiker Mattia Bottolo and middle blocker Giovanni Gargiulo defeated Cuba 3-1 (25-18, 25-19, 20-25, 25-21) in the Quarterfinals, managing to contain the reaction of the Caribbean, despite the firepower of former red and whites Marlon Yant (21 points) and Robertlandy Simon (9), thus earning their passage to the next round. On Saturday, August 2nd, again on the Ningbo court in the morning, the Azzurri, coached by coach Ferdinando De Giorgi, will face the winner of the match between France and Slovenia, the two teams playing at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow, Thursday, August 31st, in the other semifinal.
While Balaso was the star of the match as always, lending great solidity to the Azzurri, the other two red and whites were brought on during the most delicate phase of the match. Gargiulo came on during the third set in an attempt to restore order in the Italian block and stem the opponents’ surge, who were able to get back into the match despite Italy’s temporary two-set lead.
