Women's EuroVolley, Italy-Turkey final in Istanbul; the Vuelta restarts from Palma del Río

This morning the Sports section of this newspaper was in Monza, for the qualifying of the Italian Grand Prix. The afternoon moves to Istanbul and to Andalusia.

Istanbul, Italy’s sixth European final

Italy and Turkey face each other today in the final of the Women’s Volleyball European Championship at the Sinan Erdem Sports Hall in Istanbul. The two teams arrive there by different paths in the semifinal: Italy beat Poland 3-1, as reported by the Italian Volleyball Federation; Turkey beat Serbia 3-0, according to the Turkish federation. For Italy this is the sixth European final in its history.

There is a small discrepancy worth noting, because it concerns the most practical piece of information for viewers: FIPAV and Sky Sport give 18:00 Italian time, the Turkish federation 19:00 local time. The two indications do not contradict each other — they refer to different time zones — but a reader consulting only one of the two sources could end up with the wrong time.

On the historical record, Sky Sport counts 45 meetings between the two national teams, with 28 Italian wins and 17 Turkish ones. This is an overall historical figure, not a prediction: the teams on the court today are not the same as those of all past editions, and home advantage lies with Turkey.

Andalusia, fifteenth stage

In the afternoon the Vuelta a España tackles the Palma del Río-Córdoba stage, the first leg after the last rest day. This is the 81st edition of the race, which started on 22 August from Monaco and is scheduled to run until 13 September: 21 stages for a total of 3,310.6 kilometers, through Monaco, France, Andorra and Spain, with the final finish in Granada.

The design of the route, described by Eurosport Italia based on the official course, includes six high-mountain stages and two individual time trials; the same structure is reported in the route documentation. Among the riders expected at the start were Tadej Pogacar, Mads Pedersen, Richard Carapaz and Wout van Aert.

The restart after a rest day is, by the race’s structure, the moment when it becomes clear who has recovered: today’s stage precedes the final week, the one that in the route design concentrates the decisive stretch toward Granada.

What we don’t know

At the time of publication the Istanbul final has not yet begun and the Andalusian stage has not concluded: this piece contains no results. We do not know the starting lineups of the two volleyball national teams, nor the riders’ form after the rest day. We do not have the Vuelta’s general classification updated as of the eve of the fifteenth stage: the list of names cited refers to the riders expected at the start of the race, not to today’s positions, and this newspaper does not reconstruct standings it cannot find in its sources.

The two verifiable pieces of data this evening are the final score of the Istanbul match, which the two federations will publish at the end of play, and the finishing order in Córdoba.