2018 Volleyball Women's World Championship: the Italian and Dutch teams go through to the second round on maximum points! Puerto Rico qualify as well!

The astonishing Italians and Dutch finish the first round of the Women’s World Championship 2018, going through to the second round on maximum points. Following victories over Giovanni Guidetti’s Turkey, the Italians also delivered a great performance to crush the Olympic Champions, China, with a resounding 3-1 win, achieving a fifth consecutive success. After easy wins against Bulgaria, Canada, Cuba, Turkey and China, Italy finished the round at the top of their pool with maximum points. An excellent calling card to take to Osaka (Pool F), where, from 7 to 11 October Chirichella and team mates will play for place among the world’s top six, taking on the teams from Pool C: Thailand, Azerbaijan, Russia and the United States. The Netherlands also went through to the second round with easy wins over all the opponents they met along the way and which, on paper, appeared far from being pushovers: Germany, Japan, Cameroon, Argentina and Mexico.   With two wins, against Kazakhstan and Kenya, Puerto Rico (despite being beaten by Brazil, Serbia and the Dominican Republic) qualified nevertheless. On 7 October, in addition to Italy vs Azerbaijan in Osaka, there will also be the all Erreà derby between the Netherlands and Puerto Rico in Nagoya. The very best of luck to our girls!!!