The Italians narrowly beat Lebanon 3:2 in the final of the B Pool. The game was on a knife-edge until the very end.
Spectators were in for a thrilling final of the B Pool: Lebanon, the confident round robin winner of the B Pool and stopping Great Britain in the semi-finals, faced Italy, who had started the tournament in the A Pool and defeated Portugal in the semi-final. The first excitement of the match was not long in coming: In 3rd minute, Zarzour dangerously tested Cipparrone in the Italian net. On the direct counter-attack, D’Ettore rushed powerfully along the boards and crossed for Petreccia, who shot under the crossbar to make it 1:0. Both teams then neutralized each other, with the Azzurri having the more dangerous chances. However, a great individual effort from Chebli enabled the hard-fighting Lebanese to equalize.
In the second half, Italy continued to look the more dominant side at full stretch. However, Bevilacqua missed after just one minute. In turn, Lebanon knew how to make dangerous pinpricks and came close to score in several powerplays. However, Vernace escaped in one of them and scored a shorthander to make it 2:1 for the Italians. The 3:1 for the Azzurri was scored seconds after the buzzer and was rightly disallowed.
Better still, the Lebanese were able to equalize thanks to a powerful long-range shot by Kawkab at the start of the third period. However, the Lebanese were unable to capitalize on another immediate powerplay and Laurenco even had to stop another shorthander miraculously twice. The Italians were now on the upswing. Five minutes before the end of the game, the Italians made up for what they had missed: Rinaldi pushed the ball over the line. The goal was awarded after video review. The Lebanese now threw everything into the game and replaced the goalkeeper with an additional outfield player. Chebli promptly had the equalizer on the stick. Vernace made everything clear with a goal into the empty net
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