Italy starts its participation in VNL 2025: The debut is against Bulgaria on June 11

The Italian men's national volleyball team arrived in Canada, where they will begin their participation in the first week of theVolleyball Nations League (VNL)for 2025. The "Azzurri", led by coachFerdinando De Giorgi, landed in Montreal on Friday, June 6, at 2:40 PM local time, after departing from Milan Malpensa Airport. From there, they took a bus toQuebec City, where they will play their first four matches of the competition.

Italy's first match will be against theBulgarian national team, with the match scheduled forWednesday, June 11, at 6:00 PM Bulgarian timeat theCentre Videotronarena. The match will be broadcast live onMAX Sport 2,DAZNand will be available onVBTV, the official streaming platform of Volleyball World.

Preparation in Quebec City

On Saturday, June 7, the Italians begin intensive preparation on Canadian soil. Their program includes two training sessions daily — a morning session focusing on physical preparation and ball play at 10:00 AM local time, and an afternoon session at 5:00 PM.

Italy's squad for the first week in VNL:

• Setters:
  6. Simone Giannelli (captain), 26. Mattia Boninfante

• Middle Blockers:
  25. Giovanni Gargiulo, 13. Lorenzo Cortesia, 17. Simone Anzani, 18. Giovanni Sanguinetti

• Outside Hitters:
  12. Mattia Bottolo, 3. Francesco Recine, 9. Francesco Sani, 31. Luca Porro

• Opposite Hitters:
  16. Yuri Romano, 11. Kamil Rychlicki

• Liberos:
  4. Gabriele Laurenzano, 28. Domenico Pace

📅 Match schedule (June 11–15, 2025)

🗓 Wednesday, June 11

• 06:00 PM – Bulgaria 🇧🇬 vs Italy 🇮🇹

• 3:00 AM (June 12) – Argentina 🇦🇷 vs France 🇫🇷

🗓 Thursday, June 12

• 01:30 AM– Germany 🇩🇪 vs Canada 🇨🇦

• 03:00 AM– Germany 🇩🇪 vs Italy 🇮🇹

🗓 Friday, June 13

• 01:30 AM– Argentina 🇦🇷 vs Canada 🇨🇦

• 03:00 AM– Bulgaria 🇧🇬 vs Argentina 🇦🇷

🗓 Saturday, June 14

• 01:30 AM– France 🇫🇷 vs Italy 🇮🇹

• 03:00 AM– Canada 🇨🇦 vs France 🇫🇷

🗓 Sunday, June 15

• 06:00 PM– Bulgaria 🇧🇬 vs Germany 🇩🇪

• 09:30 PM– Argentina 🇦🇷 vs Italy 🇮🇹

• 03:00 AM (June 16)- Bulgaria vs Canada

Italy enters the tournament with ambitions for a strong performance and seeks to repeat the success of previous editions. However, the first obstacle for the "Azzurri" will be the extremely motivated team of Bulgaria, which also aims for a good start in the most prestigious tournament of the year.