The tournament is being held under the patronage of Shaikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Minister of Presidential Affairs and the President of Al Jazira Sports Club, and sponsored by Manazel Properties.
Holland met with a strong resistance from the Germans in the other semifinal, but managed to emerge 3-1 winners (25-18, 22-25, 25-15, 25-21) - thanks to the leadership of Manon Flier and the likes of Janneke Van Tienen, Francien Huurman, Chaine Staelens, Sanna Visser, Alilce Blom and Mirjam Orsel.
The Germans played a good match, particularly in the second game in which they forced the Dutch to surrender the result, following some great work on the net with superb blocking and accurate smashing. Krestin Tzscherlich, the libero, Heike Beier, Cornelia Dumler, Kathleen Weiss and Dominice Steffen were outstanding.
Hard time
The Italians, Group A runners-up, gave the Cubans, the Group B winners, a hard time as they showed fine form. They won the first games, 29-27, 25-21 before going down to the tournament's favourites 25-18, 26-24 and 26-14 after 90 minutes of entertaining and exciting volleyball.
The Cubans' defence was all over the place and their back line was quite vulnerable in the first two games against a relentless Italian onslaught. Italy played their best match in the tournament, but lack of experience and fatigue put paid to their hopes.
Antonio Estrella, the head coach of Cuba, told Gulf News: "We made some bad mistakes in the first two games and it was natural that we lost both of them."
