Italy took time to control Brazil and a fine second quarter set up the victory. Giulia Emmolo scored two of her three goals in the period while teammate Arianna Garibotti scored three.

The final quarter was squared  with Brazil working hard for every ball. One of the best goals of the match was the counter by Marina Zablith — the scorer of the match’s first goal — when goalkeeper Manuela Canetti threw the ball high to drop in front of Zablith to score for 12-5. Roberta Bianconi, who had two goals from the first quarter, closed the match on penalty at 13-5.

These two teams have met three times at World Championships with Brazil losing by at least 11 goals so this is a far better result and augurs well for the march to Rio 2016.

Match 20: 13:30, Group D, ITALY 13 BRAZIL 5
Quarters: 2-1, 6-0, 2-1, 3-3
Referees: Anastasiya Skovpina (UZB), Mark Koganov (AZE).
Extra Man: ITA: ¾. BRA: 1/2
Pens: ITA: 3/3

Teams:
ITALY:
Elena Gigli, Francesca Pomeri, Arianna Garibotti (3), Federica
Radicchi, Elisa Queirolo (2), Rosaria Aiello, Tania Di Mario (1),
Roberta Bianconi (3), Giulia Emmolo (3), Valeria Palmieri (1),
Aleksandra Cotti, Teresa Frassinetti, Loredana Sparano. Head Coach:
Fabio Conti.
BRAZIL: Manuella Canetti, Diana Abla, Marina Zablith
(2), Marina Canetti, Luciane Maia, Adhara Santoro, Melani Dias (1),
Izabella Chiappini (1), Victoria Muratore, Flavia Vigna (1), Mirella
Coutinho, Viviane Bahia, Victoria Chamorro. Head Coach: Sandy Nitta.

FLASH QUOTES:

Aleksandra Cotti (ITA):
“We face every match as an important one. We never see an official match as a training. We take all the games very seriously.”
Teresa Frassinetti (ITA):
“We haven’t developed our game yet, so this match was a good chance to train and improve our way to play, to reach a higher level. I believe we can get very far in this championship, even reach the final.”
Fabio Conti (ITA Head Coach):
“We thought a lot about the next match and not so much about this one. The Greek team has incorporated three or four young players and it is hard to know this team well. Our next opponent Greece is a great team, not like Kazakhstan or Brazil.”
Marina Canetti (BRA Captain):
“Given what we have done in the first phase, our main objective against USA will be not to receive more than 10 goals. I don’t believe we have any chance to go through.”
Izabella Chiappini (BRA):
“We have to improve our defence strongly and finish better our offensive opportunities. I feel disappointed with the result, and the next game against USA will be tough for us, I don’t think we have a chance.”
Mirella Coutinho (BRA):
“I am sad with the final result. We have to improve our defence and put more intensity to score goals, too. We made a lot of mistakes in the second quarter and we lost concentration at that moment. This competition is only a kind of training for us because we are already preparing our own Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.”