The first four of Europe’s are Hungary, Greece, Spain and Italy. On Saturday 13th September are occupied with the semifinals : Then there will be the games of Greece against Spain at 17.30 and Hungary against Italy at 19.00. These four teams sit back today and with them also the other four teams playing in the semifinals for the fifth to the eighth place. Another day of training to reach the perfect shape and to watch videos and analyze the previous games. The four coaches explain how their own teams are approaching the decisive date.

Georgios Morphesis (Greece). Spain is the favorite in this moment because they played a game more and are in a slightly better shape. We are an excellent team, with a good goalkeeper, good defenders and good strikers. Four of these girls already play in the senior team, Diamantopoulou and Plevritou, who played the World Leaugue and the sisters Charalampidi, who took part in a stage in the USA.

Xavier Perez (Spain). Do they say we are the favorite team just because we played more? We answer them by saying that Greece had more time to prepare this game and that they even have players in their team who play in the senior national team. We have nine of them who played at the Junior Worlds in Madrid. With whom would we prefer to play between Italy and Hungary? It’s the same. We only mind our business and think about beating Greece. If then we should face Hungary, who defeated us in Madrid, we wouldn’t think about a payback because it will be a different game.

Matyas Petrovics (Hungary) I expect a very tough game, played at high speed, where the winning team will be the one who will stay cool and clear headed. From the physical point of view we are two strong teams. Perhaps Italy had more rest, having played a much less challenging game. We are very motivated after defeating Russia. The bronze medal we won at the Junior Worlds in Madrid gave us a very powerful thrust ahead, because four of those girls are here in Ostia and nine of them are among the 25 players who also play in the senior team.

Paolo Zizza (Italy) Hungary will be our very first hurdle. Against Russia we started the match in a not proper way but then we could recover almost immediately and exploit some advantageous situations for us. They know well how to play waterpolo and when they play as they know, that is very physically, they get lethal. “ We are ready for the challenge”.

All three coaches consider Italy as the favorite for the final victory. There are different reasons, that is technical and environmental. How does Zizza answer to Morfesis, Perez and Petrovics? That we are all under great pressure, that we didn’t play high-level games yet but we are trained to do that: Greece is the strongest team and came here to win and Hungary is very motivated by the victory over Russia. Spain and Italy are the outsider.