Atanasijevic's 32 point haul sees Serbia beat Italy 3-2 in dramatic clash

Italy went into their clash with Serbia hoping to pile the pressure onto the hosts in the race for second place in Pool A and they opened up a three point gap to lead 14-11. Ivan Zaytsev was in blistering form for Italy in the opening set but the home side clawed their way level picking up four of the next five points to level at 15-15. Both sides then made attempts to cross the line first and we headed into a tie-break before Serbia sneaked the 1st set 26-24 for a 1-0 lead. 

Early exchanges in the second set were back and forth between the sides with Aleksandar Atanasijevic starting to assert his presence in the game for Serbia. However it was Italy that sneaked ahead in the second set looking to level the tie up with Zaytsev leading the fightback for the away side who continued to hold off Serbia to take the set 25-21 and level the contest at 1-1. 

Serbia were first out of the blocks in the third set taking a 6-2 advantage forcing Italy to call a time-out to stem the Serbia momentum. The break worked for the away side as they clawed their way back to level at 15-15 and they took the set into a tie-break which Serbia again sneaked at the first attempt with a 26-24 win to take a 2-1 lead in sets and sending the home crowd wild as they entered the fourth set aiming to end the tie. 

If Italy were to extend the tie into a deciding set they needed to be first out of the blocks in the fourth and they seemed intent on forcing Serbia's hand taking a 6-3 lead. Again Serbia clawed the deficit back to level at 10-10 with Atanasijevic breaking the 20 point barrier with the set finely balanced going into the final stages. Italy made numerous breaks but continued to be pegged back by Serbia before finally sealing the set 25-23 to level at 2-2 and go into a tie-break final set. 

With Serbia's Atanasijevic and Italy's Giulio Sabbi both already with a mid-20s points haul, the tie break as going to be a shootout between the side's leading scorers. Atanasijevic struck first to launch Serbia into a 4-2 lead but errors were starting to creep in on both sides and Italy levelled the tie at 10-10. The tie was on a knife-edge as Atanasijevic reached his 30 point haul to guide Serbia to a tight 17-15 sudden-death win to wrap the tie up 3-2.