Italy's U20 is playing cat and mouse with Croatia

Second game, second win: Italy's U20 national team fulfilled their duty at the Division IB World Cup in Bled (Slovenia) on Tuesday and also scored three points against Croatia. But the real touchstones are only now coming.

12 December 2023

From: leo/cst

After the Opening win against Estonia The Azzurri faced relegation candidate Croatia, who had lost their first game 0-7 against Slovenia. A big victory could therefore be expected. And that's how it finally happened: the Azzurri, who were superior in all respects, won against the pitiful outsiders with 11:2.

Coach Giorgio De Bettin had to wait ten minutes before his team hit the mark for the first time. Luciano Zandegiacomo from the Wipptal Broncos did everything alone, moved in front of the goal and scored with a remarkable shot from the spin. Nathan Garau scored shortly afterwards with a follow-up shot before Alessandro Segafredo's individual effort made the score 3-0 at half-time.

Tired of goals

At the beginning of the second period, Segafredo, who was born in Asiago, made everything clear when he hit the top corner after a counterattack. As a result, Riccardo Gorgone made two misses on the opposing blue line, which the Croatians punished coldly. Of course, the Blue Team didn't like that: Mattia Covelli from the Falcons Brixen made it 5:2 thanks to a well-placed shot, before Zandegiacomo, who was left criminally alone, increased it to 6:2. The Croatians now collapsed like a house of cards: Segafredo, Nicolò Remolato from the Unterland Cavaliers and Garau further increased the result.

Tommaso De Luca & Co. were superior to Croatia in all respects.

The De Bettin team's hunger for goals was not yet satisfied: Pietro Olmo Albis gave the Croatians their tenth goal from the blue line before Remolato made the final score 11-2 and Italy took things a little easier in the final phase.

After a day's break, the team will play against Ukraine on Thursday (19.30:5 p.m.), who have so far won both games against Poland and Estonia 1-XNUMX. Nevertheless, the Azzurri are favorites in this game.

Italy – Croatia 11:2

Italy: Rindone (Berti); Prast-Larcher, Albis-Tolomelli, Lacedelli-Nitz, Gorgone; Segafredo-Lobis-De Luca, Garau-Egger-Purdeller, Remolato-Gschliesser-Madaschi, Manganelli-Zandegiacomo-Covelli, Girardi.
coach: De Bettin

Croatia: Janjatovic (Zdralovic); Filipovic-Alic, Bezuk-Gorsic, Vukadin-Slovinac; Idzan-Marinkovic-Bodiroga, Juric-Kasparek-Zavrski, Hrovje Zovko-Matijevic-Simunkovic, Bruno Zovko-Kurjakovic-Ljubicic, Mandusic.
coach: Seric

Gates: 1:0 Zandegiacomo (9.47), 2:0 Garau (11.28), 3:0 Segafredo (15.46), 4:0 Segafredo (23.15), 4:1 Simunkovic (23.48), 4:2 Alic (27.08), 5: 2 Covelli (28.11), 6:2 Zandegiacomo (30.06), 7:2 Segafredo (30.36), 8:2 Remolato (33.13), 9:2 Garau (39.27), 10:2 Albis (40.53), 11:2 Remolato (45.42)

The table