Fistball Azzurri lose heat battle against Chile

In an intense match in temperatures around 35 degrees Celsius and high humidity, the Squadra Azzurra lost 2-3 to Chile on Saturday in Chengdu, China. The deciding set went into overtime and ended 13-11 in favor of the South Americans. Both teams started nervously, with simple mistakes creeping in on both sides. Italy initially found their way into the game better, consistently capitalizing on their chances and taking a 1-0 lead in sets. Chile immediately responded, leveling the score at 1-1. In the third set, Italy dominated and prevailed clearly. But the South Americans struck back again, decisively winning the fourth set. The fifth set turned into a truly nerve-wracking match. After a narrow Italian lead at the start, the Azzurri were down 3-6 when the teams changed sides for the final time. Italy fought back point by point, eventually leveling the score at 9-9. Extra time saw a close exchange of blows – with Chile coming out on top, taking the set 13-11 and thus securing a 3-2 match victory. Too many unnecessary mistakes "We had a very choppy start today and needed longer than we would have liked to adjust to the heat and field conditions. Unfortunately, when things started to improve, we made too many unnecessary mistakes, which allowed us to overpower our opponents," said coach Florian Runer. Debutant Philipp Deutsch was self-critical but optimistic: "We definitely couldn't show our best fistball today. The World Games and the road ahead are still long. Our minds are already on tomorrow's matches against Argentina and New Zealand. We definitely want to win those to stay in the race for the quarterfinals." Italy's next match is against Argentina on Sunday at 9 a.m. local time. The South Americans won their opening match against New Zealand by a clear 3-0 set score.

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Fistball Azzurri lose heat battle against Chile

Italy's national fistball team started the 2025 World Games with a narrow defeat.

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