Men's Volleyball CEV European Championship 2017

[Gianlu33 4,553]

What strange edition, i know that our team is very week this time, but all other results 

[VolleyRuller96 264]

We won first set 25-23, but we don't play really well

[mihamiha 124]

2 hours ago, VolleyRuller96 said:

Russia 3-0 Slovenia i feel sorry for Slovenia, but this defeat is their own fault

yeah,didnt watch the game but i read we could do more.all sets were very even

[VolleyRuller96 264]

Well, that's better

[VolleyRuller96 264]

Finally a win although it's important win, we played against possibly the weakest team in the group 

[rybak 3,217]

 It's only Finland, but still 

Edited August 26, 2017 by rybak

[VolleyRuller96 264]

Poland grab first EuroVolley victory, while Serbia make it two wins from two in Pool A

 

Gdańsk, Poland, August 26, 2017. LOTTO EUROVOLLEY 2017 hosts Poland recovered from their opening day defeat to Serbia by beating Finland 3-0 (25-23, 25-21, 25-19) in their second Pool A match.

 

In a first set dominated by Finland, Poland were keeping themselves in touch despite trailing 8-4 and 11-7. The near sell-out crowd went wild when Poland finally drew level at 18-18 and the roof nearly came off when they edged themselves ahead by a point after the next passage of play. Finland refused to give in and equalised at 22-all but, inspired by top-scorer Bartosz Kurek who hit five points, Poland secured the set 25-23 after a reception error from Niklas Seppänen.

Poland built on their success in the first set by establishing a five-point advantage at 12-7 in the second. Despite Finland closing the gap after a series of good serves from Sauli Sinkkonen, to bring them back into contention further on at 19-19, Poland surged ahead. The set was won 25-21 following a Finnish service error and the majority of the bouncing crowd knew victory was soon to be theirs overall.

Victory became a formality in the final set as Poland began to really turn on the style. They trailed at 5-4 but led 12-9 and had enough chances to secure the victory at 24-18. As the home crowd got to their feet to try and roar home a victory, they weren’t made to wait long. They failed with their first match point but after a serve from Tommi Siirilä went long, the celebrations could begin for the majority of the 9,500 inside the hall.

Paweł Zatorski, Poland libero: “We were very angry after what happened in Warsaw, so we just kept on motivating each other for the last two days. There is one more difficult game in Gdańsk ahead of us. We have to remain focused and still serve well what leads us to our quick and effective Volleyball.”

Tuomas Sammelvuo, Finland coach: “I have been thinking and I can’t be satisfied today. We had three similar sets and we ended up in the same way. We had some problems we don’t usually have. The good thing is that we can play against these teams, you don’t have to look who’s on the other side of the net. Focus on our own game. It has to give us faith. You always learn the best from the games that you lose. We have to be intelligent enough to take things from this.”

Serbia made it two wins from two in Pool A with a 3-2 (25-23, 16-25, 21-25, 25-20, 15-12) win against Estonia.

In what was a tense and unpredictable opening set, Serbia established a two-point lead at 6-4 in the early stages before being level at 7-7, 8-8 and 11-11 shortly afterwards. The two were neck-and-neck again at 19-19 as Estonia’s Robert Täht, Serbia’s Nemanja Petric and captain Dragan Stankovic scored well. However, despite failing with one set point, Serbia got the job done and won 25-23 thanks to Marko Podrascanin’s only point of the set.

In a remarkable turn of events, Serbia collapsed in the next period as they conceded their first set of EuroVolley. Estonia’s fans once again played their part as they surged ahead to lead 10-5. Serbia continued to score, but couldn’t bridge the gap and when Ardo Kreek managed to score to make it a 10-point gap at 20-10 the result became inevitable. Estonia won the set 25-16 and took a well-deserved 10-minute break.

Estonia completed the comeback in the third set as they won 25-21. Serbia could never keep pace with the team coached by Gheorghe Creţu and trailed throughout. This time the gap was shorter but Täht and Renee Teppan’s scoring prowess meant victory was very likely. Andrus Raadik secured the victory with a great spike that was too hot to handle.

Serbia knew they had to reply in the fourth set and Nikola Grbic’s men did just that as they forced the tiebreak. Leading for the most-part, the Serbs kept a healthy gap between them and Estonia. The two-time gold medallists wasted one set point but won the set 25-20 with a terrific dump shot at the net.

In the final set, Serbia maintained a comfortable lead against Estonia having initially been level at 4-4. They wasted two match points but eventually got the win with a 15-12 victory. The result meant it was a second consecutive defeat for Estonia, who have two points from their two five-set losses.

Nikola Grbic, Serbia coach: "That match was something I was expecting to happen. Perhaps I did not expect to be playing with this much difficulty, but I knew that it is not likely to play another match with that level of focus like we did against Poland in Warsaw. Estonia are not Poland and we were not underestimating our opponent, but perhaps subconsciously we were a little bit less aggressive than we were two days ago. I won’t say I am more satisfied with this victory, but it is close to the truth. Estonian fans were great. It is beautiful to play in front of your own crowd and Estonia played almost like as if they were at home. It wasn’t easy to have so many people cheering against you, but then again it’s not only that we played against pressure of Estonian fans, but we played against the pressure from their team, who played really great tonight. 

"We are already prepared to play every day and sometimes it is not bad to do so, because you immediately turn to the next match and don’t have time to think about it. But tonight we lost a lot of physical and mental energy, because we were so close to lose, so the day off will be used perfectly."

Srećko Lisinac, Serbia: "Estonia had nothing to lose in this game. With thousands of their fans in the stands they played their best Volleyball. We can’t see any opponent as a weaker team, especially when they have such great supporters, so this game reminded us that focus is what matters nearly as much as Volleyball."

Gheorghe Creţu, Estonia coach: "We still have to improve the quality of our technical and tactical skills. We are facing the best teams here and even if we played our best game against Finland, we fought like crazy here with Serbia. It can happen that some elements are not working, but we still have to believe that we can change these things as the match goes on. Today from the first moment my players were ready mentally and knew they can beat Serbia. I think they showed that no matter what the score is, they will fight back. Even when it was 14-9 in the tie break we were still believing that we are able to catch up with Serbia. It is incredible to have people with this attitude around me. They already made history here. Everyone will remember the tough Estonians here in Poland. We were talking about our fans in the locker room about how much help they are giving us, so if I can I would like to thank them very much."

Renee Teppan, Estonia: "Playing against Serbia is never easy. After the first set it looked like they thought that we are easy to play against. However, we proved that we can fight until the very end. Despite the defeat we are happy that we showed our best. We are a young team and we work hard with our great coaches, so hopefully it will be visible in the near future."

[VolleyRuller96 264]

Russia remain undefeated in Pool C as Bulgaria see off Spanish threat

 

Kraków, Poland, August 26, 2017. A 3-0 score suggests an easy victory but actually the Slovenians fought ferociously and it is due only to Russian experience that they won the clash of Group C leaders at the TAURON Arena 27-25, 30-28, 25-22.  It was a similar story in the next match with Bulgaria coming through against Spain by the same scoreline after surviving a big scare in the 2nd set.  Russia now top the group and are favourites to go straight through to the Quarter Finals while the places for the Playoffs will be decided when the teams return to the court on Monday.

Russia vs Slovenia

Slovenia stayed focused right from the start and took a two-point lead early on. Russia did not play on their usual level in block and attack, wasting far too many chances but when Ilia Vlasov entered the court he provided his team with much needed firepower and after levelling the score at 20 the Russians started to show some of their potential. They won three in a row and turned the score around from 22-24 to 25-24. It was just too hard to bear for Slovenia and Maksim Zhigalov’s ace ended the set at 27-25.

The next part of the match seemed to fortune Slovenia, as they stayed on top for a long time and with a considerable margin. Russia coach Shlyapnikov was forced to take a timeout when the deficit rose to four points (7-11) but it did not seem to provide his players with any solution. Nevertheless they finally started to struggle a little bit less and tied the score at 19s. Even though Russian recurrent problems with reception made it 22-20 in Slovenia’s favour, Kovač’s squad again could not close the set out at 24-22. Both teams exchanged hits with much vigour and eventually a single handed block by Vlasov secured a 30-28 victory for Russia and the teams headed into the 10-minute break.

The second set loss had a negative impact on the spirit of the Slovenians, as they trailed by a noticeable three points for most part of the third. They finally managed to tie it up at 17-all after Alen Pajenk’s ace and it was their serve that kept them alive.  But Russia again showed some of their experience and managed to finish the game at 25-22, and 3-0.  The winners in the crowd were definitely the growing group that have travelled over from Slovenia.

Maxim Mikhailov with 15 points and Tonček Štern with 14 led respectively Russia and Slovenia by topping the scoring.

Quotes

Slovenian coach Slobodan Kovač: “I’m satisfied with how we played, because we led twice 24-22. We did everything right but I think that in those hot moments of the game we just didn’t play with the heart. I felt that my players didn’t believe in this victory, which eventually made the difference.”

Slovenian middle-blocker Jan Kozamernik: “I think it was a loss of concentration, maybe we didn’t have that small amount of luck we needed to win one of the first two sets but I think a lot is positive in our game. In my opinion if we show it on the court in our next match it will be a good performance and Bulgaria will not stand a chance.”

Russian coach Sergey Shlyapnikov: “This game was extremely important. My team in the final part of every set played on a high level and showed its strength and character. We were capable of concentrating and playing well in the right moment. Everything seems so easy but today our opponent made it very hard for us. We don’t underestimate the Spaniards we will face on Monday. Everyone comes to the European Championship to fight for a win.”

Russian middle-blocker Ilia Vlasov: “We had to play on a very high level to win against such a strong opponent that we faced today – they are the defending silver medallists. We were a little bit intimidated but we eventually won and we hope to maintain that positive attitude on Monday against Spain.”

Bulgaria vs Spain

The second game of the evening featured the two losing teams from the first match day – Bulgaria and Spain, with the former managing to secure a 3-0 victory despite surviving some difficult moments in the 2nd set when they went from leading 10-3 to being multiple set points down.

The Spaniards played with heart at the beginning of the game, just as they did on Thursday against Slovenia. They raced back a couple of times but after the second technical break (12-16) they clearly did not know how to rise up again, with the Bulgarian block all over them. Nikolay Penchev’s attack made it 22-14 for Bulgaria and the Lions eventually finished the set, winning 25-15.

Bulgaria was on fire right from the start of the second set, winning the first four rallies and then getting an early 8-2 lead. They stayed far ahead for a while. However, then they appeared to run out of fuel and a point series by Spain made the deficit shrink from 5-11 to 9-11. Coach Plamen Konstantinow requested for a timeout as his team had none of its previous advantage, and the Spaniards tied the score up at 19 all. Fernando Muñoz’s squad didn’t stop there and actually had three set balls in a row with 24-21 on the scoreboard. Bulgaria shook off their idleness and scored a couple of points with a triple block, in the end closing it out at 28-26 with Todor Skrimov’s ace.

The Spaniards were not intimidated by the close loss and Bulgaria could not keep up to their standards so both teams exchanged hits through the third set. Another Skrimov’s ace let his team edge ahead to 21-17 and after a Bulgarian triple block the score was 24-18. The Spaniards fought to stay alive but their effort was just not enough as they lost 21-25.

Tsvetan Sokolov was the highest scoring player in this game with 18 points and Sergio Noda Blanco led the Spanish charts with 11 points.

Quotes

Plamen Konstantinov, Bulgarian coach: “I’m satisfied with how my team played today. I think they showed two faces; the good one until the half of the second set; then, like usually happens when everything is going pretty well, there came a moment in which my players thought that it was over. We needed to push until the end to win this second set but I’m happy that we didn’t let them come back, for Spain had nothing to lose and they are not a bad team.”

Todor Skrimov, Bulgarian outside hitter: “It’s never easy to play against a team like Spain because if you are not concentrated they can cause some trouble. That’s what happened today. In the first set we played well, in the second maybe a little worse. Then they started to play better and we had problems with it.”

Fernando Muñoz, Spanish coach: “Today I’m not happy, because my team didn’t play the kind of the game which I wanted. We could win the second set, but my players made too many mistakes. We can talk about the lack of experience of our team that made it difficult for us to close the second set.”

Jorge Fernandez Valcarcel, Spanish captain: “Bulgaria's players blocked and served very well in the first set. For us it was difficult. In the second set the level of our play went up. We had four or five set balls. I think we needed more experience to win this part of the match. After losing the second set, we couldn’t rise again.”

[VolleyRuller96 264]

Well, tonight we shall see if there is more to this Belgian team, or maybe Turkey indeed has chances to become this year's Slovenia also personally I am curious about how the weakened Italian team will fare against Slovakia, which surely will give their best as after the weak game against Czechs they can't afford to lose anymore since they did not won any point in the first game .

 

actually, all 4 games today look pretty engaging

[VolleyRuller96 264]

I just realised I posted the wrong Turkish coach