Late Pavel Golubev strike earnt Russia a 4-3 win over Italy.

Pavel Golubev’s strike 20 seconds from time ensured Russia’s place in the fifth-place final in an enthralling 4-3 victory over Italy.

Italy almost made the perfect start when captain Agustin Nunez capitalized on Russia’s Dimitri Kuraev’s mistake, only to be denied by keeper Artem Dryanitsyn.

Russia had a chance of their own to take the lead when Semen Matkovskiy had a well struck effort from a penalty corner saved by Italy keeper Francesco Padovani.

Italy took the lead at the start of the second quarter after Julian Montone won his side a penalty corner. Francois Soir’s effort was struck powerfully and found the back of the net after coming off a Russian stick.

Italy continued their domination of the second quarter and were rewarded when skipper Nunez struck a thunderous effort which flew past Dryanitsyn in the Russian goal to put his side 2-0 up.

Russia fought back towards the end of the first half when Alexey Sobolevskiy’s beat a defender before his great pass was finished off by Dimitry Zheleznyakov.

Right on the verge of half time Dryanitsyn kept the score at 2-1 when he made a brilliant save from Soir after a penalty corner.

Russia started the second half the better, Georgii Arusia’s effort was saved by Padovani.

Seconds later the Russian’s earned two penalty corners in a row, they were awarded the second time round when Matkovskiy found the top corner to level the scores at 2-2.

Two minutes after Russia completed the comeback after a goal line scramble was finished off by Alexander Skiperskiy.

Italy became frustrated inside the final quarter, Lucas Stramanzo was shown a green card for a poor foul.

Once the two-minute green card period was over, the Italians came close to levelling through Soir, who was denied by the outside of the post.

The continued Italian pressure paid off when Mattia Amorosini found the back of the net to make the score 3-3 with just seven minutes to go.

Montone came close to winning it at one end for Italy, stretching for a ball across goal but was denied by Dryanitsyn.

However, 20 seconds from time Pavel Golubev struck at the back post to send his country into the fifth place final to face Scotland on Sunday.

by Tobias Hunt