Italy started Final Six of the World Leage with the win against Bulgaria. With the great help from Zaytsev and Birarelli Italian team closed the game 3:1.

Italy opened that game more successfully (8:3). After the first technical time out, Bulgaria continued to make mistakes and Italy showed up with their famous strong service. Placi stopped the game on 6:13. Parodi failed on the wing, but it was not really important anymore. Italian team could play without sweat as they already gained a lead big enough to win the whole part 25:18.

Zaytsev finished the first action of the set number two. Dragan Travica was working through the middle blockers. Sokolov stroke on out. Italian mistakes made a tie 5:5. Bulgaria took a lead for the technical time out. They kept this situation for a while, but finally Birarelli blocked the attack on the wing. Bratoev gained one point with an ace. Bulgarian team kept blocking their rivals over and over again. It let them secure this part (25:18).

The third part looked a lot like a game between Russia and Canada – equally for a long time, neither Italy nor Bulgaria could reach for the bigger lead. Todor Alexiev and Todor Skrimov began to give some advantage to their team and they could take a breath for the second TTO (16:12). However, it was not the last word of Italy. They started to make up for their mistakes with service. In the end of the set Ivan Zaytsev also helped to get back in the game and Bulgaria made a few mistakes. All in all, Mauro Berutto and his team left the court as a winners of this set.

In the last part Bulgaria tried not to loose hope and quality. They managed to keep an effective game for the most of the time, but in the and Italian strength spoke again, giving the tie 20:20. The game was till the end and after an extended finsh, Italy took three points for that match.

Bulgaria – Italy 1:3 (18:25, 25:18, 22:25, 24:26)