Keeping our concentration helped us win - Blengini

Italy coach Gian Lorenzo Blengini: First, I’m very happy with the result. It’s always important to get the result but this was also important in regard to the standings. It was a tough game. The French were fresh and obviously had quality players in good condition. We fought in a difficult situation at the start of the match and in the fourth set when we were four points up before France tied the game. But we kept our concentration and were then able to defend, so we’re able to win. Now, we have to think about tomorrow’s match.

Italy player Filippo Lanza: It was a tough game today. France played well in some instances but we stayed with them, made the breakthrough and were able to keep our advantage from there. More importantly, it gave us a lot of hope for the next game against the USA but we must show the same mental strength against USA.

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France coach Laurent Tillie: Today was a very disappointing result but I feel we played well. Service reception was both good and bad for both sides, but Italy had some big moments with service and that was the big difference. Italy are a mature team with plenty of experience while we had younger players and I think that also made a difference. I’m sad about the result today but our younger players should be encouraged because they played well.

France captain Benjamin Toniutti: It’s disappointing that we lost today’s match. France’s players had an average age of 22 or 23, so we had a very young team on court. Italy’s service was really good and they didn’t make many mistakes. We can see now issues we have to work on, but we hope to finish with a win against Iran tomorrow.