Italy have begun the Inter Cup in strong fashion. The tournament, which is being held in Saint Petersburg, got underway today, with Emiliano Del Duca’s side recording a 7-2 win against Alliance, one of the five club sides taking part in the competition along with Russia, Turkey and Italy. The European champions had a two-goal advantage at the end of the first period thanks to Gabriele Gori’s brace. The second period opened with a goal from Marinai. Following this, Alliance managed to reduce the arrears as Safronov struck twice to make it 3-2. However, Italy regained control in the third and final period: Gori, Chiavaro and Zurlo (x2) all scored to finish the Russian side off.

“It was an important win,” said hat-trick hero Gabriele Gori. “We wanted to start well. As current European champions, we need to approach all our matches as if they were finals. Let’s continue in this way.”

Head Coach Del Duca was also satisfied: “This was a positive performance. The lads were focused from the start and played well in the opening period. We then dropped off a bit but never really lost control of the match. We then extended our lead in the third period. We’re only at the beginning of our preparations, but taking part in this tournament was vital in terms of getting into top condition ahead of the World Beach Games in May.

In the other game of the group, Delta beat Turkey 6-5. Italy’s next game will be against Erkan Akbal’s side tomorrow at 16:45 CEST in Saint Petersburg.

Italy 7-2 Alliance Saint Petersburg (2-0, 1-2, 4-0)
Goals: FP: 2’ and 8’ Gori (I); SP: 1’ Marinai (I), 2’and 5’ Safronov (A); TP 2’ Gori (I), 2’ Chiavaro (I), 11’ and 12’ Zurlo (I)
Italy: Del Mestre, Gori, Gentilin, Di Palma, Zurlo, Carpita, Corosiniti, Chiavaro, Marinai, Palazzolo, Palmacci, Frainetti; Coach. Del Duca
Alliance Saint Petersburg: Amanov, Bagrinetc, Efimov, Konstantinov, Krutikov, Kuzmenko, Nazarov, Nikitin, Rogovskiy, Safronov, Semenov, Tamanin; Coach. Kuprianov