Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 8, 2016 - China and Italy will open the second competition day of the women’s volleyball tournament at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. They will face each other in a Pool B fixture at the Maracanazinho and will be looking to remedy their defeats on Saturday and get on the winning track.
On the first competition day China lost dramatically to the Netherlands by 2-3 (23-25, 25-21, 25-18, 22-25, 13-15) with Zhu Ting scoring 24 points. The two-time Olympic champions and current World Cup holders were upset by the Dutch before measuring up to another strong European team.
In the all-European clash on the first day, Italy were crushed by Serbia. The 0-3 (25-27, 20-25, 23-25) defeat did not make the Italians happy and both coach Marco Bonitta and captain Antonella Del Core stressed on the need to improve their game for the matches to come.
Most recently, China and Italy met each other at a major international competition during last year’s FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix. At the finals in Omaha, USA on July 24, 2015, Italy pulled off a thrilling 3-2 (25-15, 22-25, 22-25, 25-18, 15-12) victory. Earlier in the same competition, the Chinese managed a 3-1 (25-21, 20-25, 25-16, 25-19) win against the Italians on July 10 in Saitama, Japan.