HCB goalie Gianluca Vallini was in goal for the Blue Team. © ÖEHV/Bernd Stefan

Austria Cup: Italy loses at the start

On Thursday, Italy's national team made its first appearance against Austria in Klagenfurt. The Blue Team Poland had to admit defeat in the Heidi Horten Arena.

14 December 2023

From: cst

A 1:3 defeat against Poland marked the start of the Austria Cup for Italy. The Blue Team started strong and hardly allowed Poland to develop in the first third. The Cortina defender took the lead early on (1rd). As a result, Italy dominated the action, but was unable to improve. This took its toll after the first third siren, as Poland came back from the locker room much stronger. The Eastern Europeans went up two gears and quickly scored an equalizer through Bartolomej Jeziorski (3th). Shortly before the end of the middle third, Patryk Krezolek even gave Poland the lead (24th).

In the final third, Poland controlled the action and did not allow Italy to emerge for a long time. But because the Eastern Europeans couldn't land the decisive blow either, it remained exciting. Only in the last few minutes did the Blue Team get a little more dangerous in front of the opponent's goal, but they couldn't equalize. Instead, after an Italian loss, Krystian Dziubinski scored an empty net goal to make the final score 3-1.

Poland – Italy 3:1

POLE: Murray (Fucik); Wajda-Gorny, Kostek-Jaskiewicz, Horzelski- Zielinski, Floraczak-Tyczynski; Wronka-Pas-Zygmunt, Lyszczarczyk-Dziubsinski-Jeziorski, Urbanowicz-Starzynski-Krezolek, Smal-Michalski-Bitas.
Coach: Robert Wazaber

ITA: Vallini (Smith); Amorosa-Pietroniro, Miglioranzi-Di Tommaso, Parini-Seed, Colli-Forte; Conci-Morini-Zanetti, Eisendle-Mantenuto-Brunner, Deluca-Sanna-McNally, Mantinger-Traversa-Felicetti.
Coach: Mike Keenan


Gates: 0:1 Colli (2.28), 1:1 Jeziorski (23.55), 2:1 Krezolek (39.17), 3:1 Dziubinsky (58.59)