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Volleyball powers start quest for ticket to World Champs with comprehensive wins Luxembourg, May 24, 2017. As many as six qualifiers to the 2018 FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship are taking place this week – with the eventual winners securing their progression to the final stage of the competition hosted by Italy and Bulgaria. Wednesday’s programme featured 18 matches in total, with all pre-favourites and Volleyball powers – primarily France, Germany, Serbia, and Russia – securing easy wins in their respective pools. The Netherlands and Greece are the two teams with a perfect record of two wins in as many matches in Pool B where actions started already on Tuesday in Koog aan de Zaan. Pool A in Lyon (FRA) Turkey vs. Azerbaijan Turkey started their campaign in Lyon with a compelling 3-0 victory (25-21, 25-21, 25-13) over Azerbaijan after 76 minutes of play. The Turks rightfully claimed their first victory at the tournament with Yigit Gülmezoglu top scoring with 18 points. After a shaky start to the match with many mistakes from both teams, Turkey edged ahead with the help pf their opposite hitter Gülmezoglu before outside spiker Gökhan Gökgöz ended the first set with two consecutive aces. History repeated itself in the second set whereas the third one was more one-sided with Turkey claiming a massive early lead (8-2) and cruising to a landslide 25-13 win. Josko Milenkoski, head coach of Turkey: “This is our first official match together. I joined this team one month ago only. We have some problems with injuries, and some of the best players are not here but we are satisfied with this result, especially since we won in three sets. Now we are taking it one match at a time. The most important matches, against France and Germany, are coming soon.” Arslan Eksi, captain of Turkey: “In every tournament the first game is always difficult. We are a young team, and we did not play any friendly games before coming here. As a result, this is a good start. Tomorrow we play Iceland and it will be a good preparation for us for the next game against France. For a first day, the result is ok. We will fight for every game.” Aleksey Chervyakov, player of Azerbaijan: “We struggled in reception. We were often behind and did not manage to take advantage of some situations. We fought for two sets but could not do the same in the third one.” Iceland vs. France The reigning European champions from France started their home campaign with a compelling 3-0 (25-8, 25-8, 25-14) victory over Iceland in a matchup where their head coach Laurent Tillie could test some younger players – and they all did a great job. 2,400 fans witnessed the European champions play with most of their second lines and the audience enjoyed discovering the skills of young, up-and-coming players such as opposite Stephen Boyer (14 points, including four aces) and middle blocker Barthélémy Chinenyeze (eight points). France made a few more mistakes in the third set where the hosts gave away a few easy points to their opponent – but this did not prevent them from cruising to a speedy 3-0 victory. Benjamin Toniutti, captain of France: “The most important thing was to respect the other side, that means to play at our best level and that is what we did. We need to think immediately about tomorrow’s match against Ukraine, a physically strong team. We will have to be patient and to play clever as we are used to do.” Laurent Tillie, head coach of France: “We could see that the new young players are able to find a place in this team and even the older ones are sometimes admiring them.” Alexander Stefansson, captain of Iceland: “It’s something new for us, it’s an experience that we needed, and it’s really fun. I felt the pressure during the first few points, but after that, we were simply trying to enjoy the moment. We were not looking for a result in this match, and the biggest thing was to enjoy it.” Rogerio Ponticelli, head coach of Iceland: “We knew it was going to be difficult, but it was a good first match for us. It was the first time we played in such a big sports hall, with this kind of top players on the other side of the court. You could feel a lot of positive vibe and energy.” Germany vs. Ukraine Volleyball legend Andrea Giani and his team did not miss the opportunity to start their campaign on a high note as they rallied past Ukraine in three sets (25-16, 25-20, 25-19). With György Grozer back with the team for the first time since January 2016 and two top outside hitters, Germany seem a serious candidate for the sole ticket at stake to make it straight to next year’s World Championship. After having announced his retirement from the national team in January 2016 as Germany failed to qualify for the Rio Olympics, Grozer (13 points) is back and everyone in attendance in Lyon could feel it. The first set was a pure formality for Germany with Ukraine’s reception destroyed by German powerful services (25-16). Ukraine fought a bit back in the early stages of the second set but Germany edged ahead at 7-4 and did never relinquish their lead (25-20). The match became a lot tighter in the third set where Ukraine second setter Volodymyr Kovalchuk changed the pace of their game but in the end, Germany prevailed once again (25-19). Andrea Giani, head coach of Germany: “The first match of a tournament is never easy but we started well especially with Grozer and good services. It was an interesting game because Ukraine is a strong team. I think we have good chances to qualify but we will play against big teams such as Turkey and France, the reigning European champions, whom I played in the 2015 final with Slovenia. We have a lot of potential but it won’t be easy.” Lukas Kampa, captain of Germany: “It’s the best possible start we could have here, winning in straight sets and not playing for too long, so we could save some energy. We did the right first step today and as from now, we will improve our game with every match. We have a good feeling, a good spirit, there is a great atmosphere inside the team and we will need this for the rest of the week.” Ugis Krastins, head coach of Ukraine: *They came out with strong services, it was truly something huge and we were not able to handle this situation. During the third set, we controlled our game much better and found confidence but still the Germans were stronger. Every game represents for us a new lesson to learn.” Pool B in Koog aan de Zaan (NED) Austria vs. Greece The battle between Austria and Greece was the most intense one so far at the World Championship qualifier in Koog aan de Zaan. The emotions ran high at some point, especially among the Greek players. After a few very close sets, Greece claimed a 3-2 victory (26-24, 27-25, 16-25, 23-25, 15-13) to keep a perfect record in the tournament. Top scorer Mitar Tzourits (28 points) commented: “Of course we preferred a 3-0 victory, but since victories are more important than points, we are also happy with this 3-2 score.” The Netherlands vs. Republic of Moldova On Tuesday, The Netherlands played rusty in their opening match against Luxembourg. The ‘orange team’ booked a 3-1 victory, but the level of play was not always convincing. On Wednesday, however, the squad of head coach Gido Vermeulen played a perfect match. Opposite Nimir Abdel-Aziz, the former setter of the team was the absolute star of the game as the Oranjes rallied to a 3-0 victory (25-15, 25-13, 25-16). He scored 20 points out of 21 attempts, this accounting for a terrific success rate of 95%. “We played very well today,” commented Vermeulen. “This is the level we can play at and we want to show.” Slovakia vs. Luxembourg Slovakia was much too strong for Luxembourg in the first set (25-17), but in the second and third sets, the two teams played almost at the same level. Luxembourg, the gold medallists from the Small Countries Division European Championship held two weeks ago in Iceland, missed some opportunities and Slovakia took advantage of that, thus cruising to a 3-0 victory (25-17, 27-25, 26-24) to bounce back from their 1-3 loss to Austria the day before. Miroslav Palgut, the Slovakian coach, reacted after the match: “We played well at the end of two close sets, and that’s what’s most important to me. After our loss to Austria, qualifying for the World Championship will be hard, but we will try everything we can to make this happen.” Pool C in Ljubljana (SLO) The opening day of the 2018 FIVB Men’s World Championship qualifier in Ljubljana provided two straight 3-0 victories for Belgium and Slovenia in their respective matches with Portugal and Georgia and a much more exciting match between Israel and Latvia, which ended after a dramatic fifth set in favour of the Israeli side. Portugal vs. Belgium Belgium team captain Sam Deroo was satisfied with the performance of his team: “We played with much consistency and were better in every aspect of the game. Our team showed that we can play without making mistakes and with Portugal making a lot of them, it was a bit easier for us to claim the victory,” he said after the Red Dragons stormed to a 3-0 victory (25-17, 25-16, 25-16) in 73 minutes. Slovenia vs. Georgia In the second match of the day, Slovenia head coach Slobodan Kovač provided some of his youngsters with the opportunity to play and they paid back his trust with a strong performance. Matej Kok, a 20-year-old outside hitter who just signed a contract with Poland’s MKS BEDZIN, commented after a comprehensive 3-0 victory (25-12, 25-11, 25-12) for the home side: “It was a great opportunity for us, I mean for the younger players to show what we are capable of. It is true that Georgia was one of the easiest opponents in our pool, but I think we delivered a solid performance. This victory raised our self-confidence, but the toughest matches are yet to come,” he concluded. Israel vs. Latvia At the end of an exciting match, Israel celebrated a 3-2 victory (19-25, 25-20, 24-26, 25-22, 16-14) after coming back twice from one set down. “We tried to play with a lot of energy and fought for every rally. We do not have our best player with us at this tournament. Our coach wanted to give the opportunity to young players and I am happy that we won the game. We will give our best in the next matches as well,” Israel top scorer (29 points) Viacheslav Batchkala said. Pool D in Tallinn (EST) Montenegro vs. Russia Montenegro netted the first three points of the match against Russia but after that, it was all about the gold medal winners from the 2012 London Olympics. Except for the end of the third set, the score was relatively close all the time but the Balkan team never grabbed the initiative. After 79 minutes of game action, Russia achieved a 3-0 (25-21, 25-22, 25-18) victory. “The first game is always a little bit nervous but I am very satisfied with the result and it gives us a good starting point for the whole tournament,” Russia head coach Sergey Shlyapnikov said. “I am also happy that I had the opportunity to give playing time to younger members of our team,” he added. On the Russian side of the court, as many as twelve players entered the court but the best scorer was their superstar Maxim Mikhailov with 14 points. Veljko Basic, head coach of Montenegro, stated that the result was logical and reflected the difference in power between the two teams. “We gave away too many easy points in every set. However, overall I am satisfied that we never gave up and that is a very good sign for the matches to come. We have to improve our service and counterattacks.” Estonia vs. Romania The hosts started impressively thrashing Romania 25-15 in the first set. After that, Estonia’s serve lost a bit of its riskiness and the opponents got back into the game, thus managing to win the third set. “Fortunately our team’s quality is good enough so that even after losing a set, we did not fall apart and we could still win the match,” Estonia libero Rait Rikberg said after a 3-1 (25-15, 25-21, 22-25, 25-16) victory. Estonia head coach Gheorghe Creţu added: “Romania took a lot of risks but when we managed to hit consecutive serves in the fourth set, we broke away and never looked back.” Marian Iulian Bala - who was the best scorer for Romania with 15 points - said that it was a tough match for them. “There were moments where we lost our focus and the opponents managed to score three or four consecutive points. We have to avoid this kind of situations. In addition to that, I must say that Estonia was better than us today,” said the outside hitter. Romania had to play without their captain and team leader Laurentiu Lica who suffered an injury a few days ago. Hungary vs. Kosovo May 24, 2017 will remain a historic day for Kosovo’s Volleyball family since in Tallinn their men’s senior national team played the first international match in their history against Hungary. “It is a historic and very special moment for all of us. For the last 25 years we only had the chance to play inside Kosovo but now we can play against different countries,” team captain Valon Nikqi said proudly. Their debut was quite impressive. In the first set the score stood at 13-11 in favour of Kosovo but after that, Hungary made a 12-2 spurt. The game eventually ended in 63 minutes with the score of 3-0 (25-13, 25-17, 25-9). “Our preparation lasted only 10 days and this you can see from the result. I hope that in the coming matches we can improve our game,” head coach Miftar Ziberi added. His colleague Juan Manuel Barrial from Hungary said that although it was a relatively easy game if you look at the score, they made many mistakes, especially at the beginning of the match. “We were nervous and made many service errors. Until the middle of the second set, our game was so-so but then we improved our attack and things went better,” he said. Pool E in Zagreb (CRO) Denmark vs. Switzerland Switzerland beat Denmark 3-1 (25-23, 19-25, 25-20, 25-18) in the first match of the tournament taking place at Bojan Stranic sports hall in Zagreb. After a close start to the match (9-9), Switzerland broke away with Jovan Djokic standing behind the service line and after that, the Swiss were able to hold on to their lead until the end. Denmark responded by taking the second set with the help of their outside spiker Rasmus Breuning Nielsen, but Sébastien Steigmeier (21 points) and Luca Ulrich (15 points) propelled Switzerland to a 3-1 victory in the end. Peter Trolle Bonnesen top scored for Denmark with 14 points. Mario Motta, head coach of Switzerland: “I am really excited because this is my first match at helm of the Swiss national team. Both teams made many mistakes but when we were able to reduce ours, we could break away. Keeping calm and concentrated were the key to our success today.” Mikael Trolle, Denmark head coach: “I am not happy with the performance of my team. We did not serve as we wanted and should, and that gave our opponent an opportunity to turn the game in their favour.” Serbia vs. Belarus The biggest favourite of the tournament in Zagreb, the Serbian national team, easily cruised to a 3-0 victory (25-17, 25-22, 25-15) in their matchup with Belarus. Serbia setter Nikola Jovović orchestrated his team’s game in the best way, thus confirming why Serbia belong to the European elite. On the other hand, Belarus seemed afraid of playing such a strong opponent – and Serbia rallied to an easy 25-17 win in the first set. Belarus played a lot better in the second set where they put up a fight but Serbia were too much to stand with Dražen Luburić and Uroš Kovačević top scoring in the end with 14 and 13 points, respectively. Pavel Kuklinski was the most prolific player for Belarus with eight points. Vadzim Pranko, player of Belarus: “I think it was not easy because we played against a top team. In the second set, we played well. I think my team did not give their 100 percent, and we should do that in a match against such a strong opponent.” Nikola Grbić, head coach Serbia: “We played with maximum concentration and this is something you could see. We did not relax at any time and I am very happy about it. If we play the next matches with the same concentration and at our level, I am convinced that no opponent can disrupt our plan to qualify straight to the World Championship.” Norway vs. Croatia The first set of the match featuring hosts Croatia and outsiders Norway was a close affair up to 20-all before Croatia scored two points in a row and despite time-outs from both sides, the home stars were able to hold on to their small advantage (25-23). Filip Šestan opened the second set with a series of powerful serves for Croatia before Norway could finally stabilise their reception. Again, the score stood at 20-20 but this time around Norway were those who broke away (23-21) and eventually won the set (25-22). Croatia controlled the match from start to end of set three (25-19) and even though Norway put up a fight in the following set, Croatia broke away halfway through to claim their first victory on home soil (25-15). Scott Olsen, head coach of Norway: “We have been preparing our team for the game with Croatia through a series of friendly matches. We are not happy with what we did at blocking and attacking. We have to make a better transition and be prepared for tomorrow.” Ivan Rančić, head coach of Croatia: “We were visibly nervous in the first official game we had after a long break, and this is something you could obviously see, especially in the second set. When we got together, and we served well too, we achieved the goals we had set before the start of the game.” Pool F in Karlovy Vary (CZE) Finland vs. Cyprus The opening match of the World Championship qualifier in Karlovy Vary brought a clear victory for Finland (3-0; 25-14, 25-13, 25-21) in their matchup with Cyprus. It was an expected win for the Finns but head coach Tuomas Sammelvuo did not hide his happiness: “It was important to win like this, not giving so much energy away because it’s a long tournament. The big goal was to pay attention to easy things – free balls, speak on the court and so on.” The Cyprus side was able to pose a threat only in the last set where they scored 21 points. “I am happy that in the third set we had to find solutions because the opponent came pretty close,” Sammelvuo added. Northern Ireland vs. Czech Republic In the second match of the day, the Czech team faced Northern Ireland. The Czechs are number 13 in the current FIVB Ranking, so they were the heavy favourites of the game with Northern Ireland standing a way down at 42 in that same chart. From the beginning of the match, it was obvious who was going to control the game and the hosts eventually won 3-0 (25-16, 25-7, 25-6). The Czech Republic currently share the first place in the pool with Finland and the home team’s captain Ales Holubec commented: “It was a hard match because the level of the game was a little bit lower than usual, with all due respect to the opponent. I hope that from tomorrow, we will be able to start up from the first set and we will focus on the next games.” Sweden vs. Spain The last match of the day featured Sweden and Spain and the latter ones emerged victorious at the end of a battle that lasted for five sets (25-19, 22-25, 21-25, 25-16, 15-12). The Spanish coach Fernando Muñoz Benitez said after the match: “In general we are happy to win this game because it is very important to start this tournament with a victory and to keep us calm. We had ups and downs during the game because I think that we lost focus at some point but we regrouped and eventually won the match.”

Serbia and Poland keep perfect record at women’s World Champs qualifier Warsaw, Poland, May 24, 2017. Serbia and Poland claimed their second straight 3-0 victory on the second competition day of the European qualifier to the 2018 FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championship taking place this week at Torwar Hall in Warsaw. Serbia beat the Czech Republic in three sets and Poland achieved the same result in their matchup with underdogs Iceland. Slovakia bounced back from their loss to the Czech Republic the day before to rout Cyprus in three sets to complete Wednesday’s programme. The first match of the second competition day between the Czech Republic and pre-favourites Serbia might have been one of the decisive ones for the final standing of the World Championship qualifier in Warsaw. The 2016 Olympic silver medallists did not disappoint and cruised steadily to win the first two sets 25-19 and 25-18 almost unchallenged and not for the lack of skills on the Czech side. Coach Zdenek Pommer’s team doubled their efforts in set three and accumulated a substantial point advantage (12-5), but Serbia showed their experience and kept coming back for a thrilling finish, eventually winning 3-0 (25-19, 25-18, 26-24). “Maintaining our concentration throughout the game is something that we will try to improve for the next games. We are happy with this 3-0 win. Every match and point counts here. The Czech Republic played really well, especially in defence and I think they are one of the best teams in this tournament,” said Serbia star player Tijana Boskovic, who scored an impressive number of 28 points for her team. Later in the afternoon, Cyprus managed to score only 38 points in the three sets they played against Slovakia. Very efficient reception gave the Slovakian team many opportunities for their attacks, which they mostly converted throughout the match. When they paired this with some good serving, only a 3-0 ending was to be expected and indeed this scenario came true after only 66 minutes of play (25-15, 25-13, 25-10). “This tournament and match is a great experience for my team. Our aim is to win gold in the Small Countries Division, so playing here is very good for my players,” said Petros Patsias, coach of Cyprus. “These three points are important, but the big thing for me is that this was the first official game, and not an easy one from the mental side, for some of our very young, new players – the libero and the opposite. Letting them play in a real, national team game is important for our future,” said Slovakia coach Marek Rojko. Poland pleased their fans in Warsaw not only with a three-point win, but also with their style of play, presenting a variety of successful attacks, while Iceland gave away quite a few points. The hosts only stepped up their game in set no. 2, finishing it with a rarely seen score of 25-5. This pace was hard to maintain at all times and coach Jacek Nawrocki’s players slowed down a bit in the beginning of set three, but that was just a short break before they went on to close the match 3-0 (25-16, 25-5, 25-18). “Our performance in the second set was really good, and regardless of how the opponents played, we made a minimal number of own mistakes and that was enough. In the other two sets my players looked tense again – wanting too much too fast and this is not good for the flow of the game,” said Nawrocki. “For us, for the second line-up, it was an important game – to go out there and take the responsibility for the match, especially when everyone expects a perfect result,” said home star Maja Tokarska

We won 3-0. I know this is starting to sound like I had some weird hate/rage for our women's team, but that was not a good match at all given the rank of our opponent tonight and how great Serbia played against them, I would say the last 25-18 was almost uncomfortably close. And truly, if that was , or playing against or like that I would be truly angry, because those girls from Cyprus or Iceland played witb heart and TBH at least one of those teams deserved to win a set against us....

We now truly see how weak our womens team is and they don't even play as bad as yesterday against Cyprus yet I will again say that much of the reason why the ending parts of sets are not dramatically close is both Cyprus and Iceland , basically 90% amateur teams seem to be scared at the thought of leading against us... if we play like this we will have HUUGEE problems against Slovakia tommorow... and it is still only 16-14 for us, so in theory anything is still possible

Wow, we beat Iceland 25-5 in II set Too bad we are now losing 3-8

Well, from the fragments I saw Slovakian women played much better against Cyprus then ours

And 25-6 in 3rd poor Northern Ireland

25-7 for Czech Republic in the 2nd set

Well, after a heavy fight Austria lost the tie-break 13-15, and quite undeservedly lost the match. This is still a great result for them, and they might fight for top 2 spots here as they still have Moldova and Luxembourg to play against Now for tonights match of the day vs

As I expected pretty easy 3-0 for Serbian women

Wow, once again surprisingly good game by . They are losing 1-2 against but they won previous set 25-16 and lost previous only by 2 points (24-26 and 25-27). If the achieve a win here, who knows, they might even fight for the best 2 in this group

Today's games of FIVB women's world championship qualification tournament in Warsaw 15:30 CEST Czech Republic 0-3 Serbia ( 19-25 ; 18-25 ; 24-26) 18:00 CEST Cyprus 0-3 Slovakia ( 25-15 ; 25-13 ; 25-10 ) 20:30 CEST Iceland 0-3 Poland ( 16-25 ; 5-25 ; 18-25 )

Montenegro - Russia (men) livestream http://live.robinwidget.org/streamvideo8/montenegro-vs-russia-live-stream-1604497.html Potentially the biggest chance of finding stream of any match during this tournament -if it's available will be on this site https://www.batmanstream.com/volleyball-live-streaming-video-2016-5.html I don't like using unofficial sources, but if CEV doesn't even care for broadcasting of the games...

Terrorist takeover in part of southern Phillipines. There are ISIS flags everywhere.... president Dutertte declared Martial Law in the region

Oranjes and Greece victorious as Austria cause first sensation of World Champs qualifiers Koog aan de Zaan, Netherlands, May 23, 2017. The men’s World Championship qualifier – Pool B in the Netherlands started on Tuesday in Koog aan de Zaan with Austria causing a sensation after rallying to a 3-1 victory over Slovakia before Greece and The Netherlands dropped one set in their respective matches with the Republic of Moldova and Luxembourg, respectively. The competition resumes on Wednesday with another three matches and will reach its climax this coming weekend in Apeldoorn – with the eventual winners booking a ticket to next year’s World Championship in Italy and Bulgaria. In the first match played at the Topsportcentrum in Koog aan de Zaan, Austria caused a sensation with their 3-1 victory (27-25, 26-24, 19-25, 25-20) over Slovakia. Austria are currently no. 25 on the European Ranking, while Slovakia hold place 12 – so Slovakia were the pre-favourites going into this match. Paul Buchegger (23 points) and Alexander Berger (19 points) were the main scorers for the Austrians. “We couldn’t have wished for a better start to this tournament”, said Austria coach Michael Warm. “Slovakia is a big Volleyball nation, so we are very satisfied with this win.” In the second match of the day, Greece lived up to the expectations and beat the Republic of Moldova 3-1 (20-25, 25-20, 25-17, 28-26). It was opposite Mitar Tzourits, the superstar from the Italian club Calzedonia VERONA, who set the pace for the Hellenic team by scoring as many as 29 points. Coach Konstantinos Arseniadis shared his thoughts after the match: “We have had a short preparation and that was the reason for our slow start today. After the first set we found our rhythm. I think we will keep improving with every match.” Luxembourg, the number 31 team from the European Ranking and gold medallist from the Small Countries Division European Championship only two weeks ago, surprised the home side from The Netherlands in the first set of the last match on schedule for Tuesday. Kamil Rychlicki, the outside hitter from the Belgian team Noliko MAASEIK, was very successful in the first set with his services and spikes. In the second, third and fourth sets the Dutch proved to be stronger than Luxembourg, as many had expected (3-1; 22-25, 25-16, 25-20, 25-15). It was substitute Jeroen Rauwerdink, who managed to get his team back on track. “We played rusty during this match,” acknowledged Dutch coach Gido Vermeulen. “For our next matches we have to fix this kind of problems a lot quicker.”

Serbia, Poland, Czech Republic live up to expectations to start World Championship qualifier on a high note Warsaw, Poland, May 23, 2017. The first day of the women’s World Championship qualifier in Warsaw produced three victories for the top favourites of the competition – with the Czech Republic edging their neighbours from Slovakia 3-1 before Olympic silver medallists Serbia routed Iceland in three sets and hosts Poland did the same with Cyprus. The competition continues on Wednesday with another three matches – and will reach its climax this weekend, with the eventual winners of the tournament securing their participation in next year’s World Championship in Japan. The Czech Republic defeated their neighbours Slovakia 3-1 (18-25, 25-15, 25-17, 25-16) in the opening game of the Women’s World Championship qualifier in Warsaw. Slovakia set the pace in set no. 1 but the situation changed completely after the three-minute break. The Czech players loosened up with each rally and quickly went from 6-2 to 21-10, finishing this part of the game with a quick 25-15. Coach Marek Rojko’s team had better moments in the beginning of set three, but their opponents kept up their good performance, while Slovakia began to make more and more errors. The fourth set was more of a formality. “Slovakia showed a really good level of Volleyball in the first set. We did not do that. We were too tense in the beginning but started to play our own game from the second set on,” said Czech Republic’s setter Pavla Vincourova. One might call the game between Iceland and Olympic silver medallists Serbia (25-13, 25-15, 25-9) a mismatch, but the overpowered Icelandic players did not seem to worry. Cheered by a group of their own fans and the local crowd alike, coach Daniele Capriotti’s team played a very joyful game, both when on the lead (once, 3-2 in the second set) and 16 points down (at the end of set three). “We are here to learn. We are coming from the Small Countries Division and we need this kind of test and learning experience to raise ourselves to the next level,” commented Capriotti after the match. “It may have not been a hard game, but we tried to create a good atmosphere, show the energy that we have and play on our level,” said Serbia’s middle blocker Mina Popovic. Both sides did seem to enjoy the match a lot and took a photo together after the referee’s last whistle. The beginning of Poland vs. Cyprus was nervous, marked with many spoiled serves and missed spikes. Poland, however, found their rhythm only after a good attack by Berenika Tomsia (16-13) and lost only one more point by the end of set no. 1. Good serving by Erika Zembyla gave more trouble to the hosts again in set two, helping Cyprus claim a 4-1 lead. The White-and-Reds regrouped and turned the score around after the first technical time-out, with Natalia Mędrzyk’s efficient serving and good blocking game (25-17). Substituting Malwina Smarzek for Patrycja Polak was a good move on coach Nawrocki’s side and helped his team recover from a very bad beginning of set three (1-7). A series of counterattacks and blocks changed the face of the game. With Tomsia on the service line, the hosts elevated their point advantage to as much as 20-11 and could celebrate their first victory a while later (3-0; 25-14, 25-17, 25-15). “As far as Cyprus’ serving goes, I think they used that element to the max, aiming perfectly at the right zones. It was a good test for our receivers. Every match is important to us, regardless of who the opponents are and I would like to see my players put all their skills to work in every match,” said Poland coach Jacek Nawrocki.

25-15 in the third set for us. We won 3-0 but it was a dreadful performance and we won all sets only because Cyprus could not keep concentration after half of the sets and after leading for example 10-5 lost 7 points in a row. I fear the upcoming matches...

3-8 for Cyprus in 3rd set. One of our commentators got almost silent and i cannot blame him...

25-17... we are playing against second-worst team of our group... Jesus Christ, they were leading 4-1, 8-7 until again they lost their heads in the middle of the set and that's what saved us. We will take 4th place in this group, after Serbia, Czech Republic and Slovakia...

Pretty decent first set for which is a shame on us. We lost 15 points, but only because Cyprus' players seemed to lose their heads when they got us at 11-12...

WHAT A DAY! In men's tournament Luxembourg just took the lead against Netherlands

Poor Moldova was this close to achieving their first point at this qualification they lost 4th set 26-28.... still this is great result and beggining of tournament for them , as 4 years ago they only managed to get 3 points in a group with Slovenia, Hungary and Israel.

Well, players from Iceland actually played better then I thought they would I was fearing they will be on the same level as Algeria from last years World Cup, but especially in 2nd set they played pretty competetive volleyball, even managed to lead against the strongest team in the group for a bit Now I am truly curious about the Level of Cypriot team

They are happy with every single point, that's the true meaning of sport and their fans are awesome, there are very few of them yet they create great atmosphere

WHAT THE HELL!!! : MOLDOVA 1-0 Greece i am loving this qualification tournament