2008 🇧🇷 Brazil vs Italy 🇮🇹 🏐 Women Volleyball 🏐 FIVB World Grand Prix

2008 was the Olympic year and World Grand Prix held around 1-2 months prior Olympic. Many teams used this tournament as final warmup but it occured not the highest level of standard was shown in this tournament since Olympic was all the teams' final goal. Teams may hide their real power and play fool. The rule in final round was round robin.
Post-Match Commentary :
Brazil was 8 win 1 loss entered final round. #7 Fofão (38yo, 1.73m) absent in week 1 so lost China 2:3. #2 replaced her by that time. #3 Marianne Steinbrecher (25yo, 1.88m) returned in 2008 and with other options in wing spikers position included #4 Paula Pequeno (26yo, 1.84m), #12 Jaqueline Carvalho (25yo, 1.86m) & #13 Sheilla Castro (25yo, 1.85m). #1 Walewska Oliveira (29yo, 1.91m) & #9 Fabiana Claudino (23yo, 1.93m) as middle position. Another new middle #6 Thaísa Menezes (21yo, 1.96m) entered the squad. Brazilian squad getting stronger and stronger. They probably one of the teams didn't need to hide any real power as they were strong in all aspects. In this match, coach let #6 and #4 as starting lineup. #6 performed well in Macau pool while #4 almost didn't play much in preliminary round. Italy was 2007 World Cup champion. An ex-Cuba national player #12 Taismary Agüero (30yo, 1.77m) got Italy nationality and represented Italy since 2007. She played as 2nd pass and outside hitter in Cuba era. She was one of the best players in Cuban squad. #15 Antonella Del Core (28yo, 1.8m), #17 Simona Gioli (31yo, 1.85m) the two key players in 2007 World Cup didn't appear in the final round. #12 Francesca Piccinini (29yo, 1.8m) & #7 Martina Guiggi (24yo, 1.83m) replaced #15 & #7 position in this tournament. #14 Eleonora Lo Bianco (29yo, 1.72m) was the captain and leader of the team. In this match, Brazil attacks, blocking, serves and errors made were performed all better than Italy.