Brazilian World Champs are into another final

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Evandro and Andre were too good for the Italians

Reigning World Championships Evandro Goncalves and Andre Loyola’s dream of winning the World Tour Finals remain on after they destroyed last summer’s Olympic silver medalists Daniele Lupo and Paolo Nicolai in the semifinal in Hamburg.

After storming to glory in Vienna two weeks ago, the Brazilians were once again in red-hot form to see off the challenge of the Italians – a team that came into the tournament off the back of a European success last week.

Their mix of Evandro’s power and Andre’s defense was too much for Lupo and Nicolai, as the South Americans won 21-19, 21-15 to set-up a final against the USA’s Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena.

“We decided to serve to Nicolai which not a lot of teams tend to do and I think we caught them off guard,” Andre said. “We’ve played Nick and Phil twice and won one and lost one. Dalhausser’s block is tough to play against but if we can sideout well we’ll be fine.”

Those words were echoed by the big-serving Evandro, who hit his ninth ace off the tournament in the win over the Italians.

“We made a good start and our defense was good as Andre pulled off some important digs,” he said. “We wanted to reach that final and that was our goal.

“They are an experienced team. Phil is one of the greatest players in the world and he makes such a different. However, if we can keep playing well then we have a chance to win.”

The men’s final of the Swatch Beach Volleyball FIVB World Tour Finals presented by Vodafone begins at 3pm CET and is live on BeachStream. Click here to subscribe!