02/05/2015 18:03
Germany’s men rout Romania to start Continental Cup campaign in style, play Greece in big final
2014-2016 CEV Beach Volleyball Continental Cup - Men
Thessaloniki, Greece, May 2, 2015. Germany started their campaign in the 2014-2016 CEV Beach Volleyball Continental Cup with a comfortable win over their opponents from Romania as actions got underway on Saturday morning for Pool E in Thessaloniki. Germany will play hosts Greece in the final coming up on Sunday morning with the eventual winner progressing straight to the final stage of the Continental Cup scheduled for next year. Belarus is also through to Round 4 following their 2:0 win over Romania after the Eastern Europeans had previously lost to Greece in the semis.
Click here for further information including results and a detailed match programme
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Germany vs. Romania 2:0
As the competition got started on Saturday morning at Avant Garde Sports Club in Thessaloniki, Jonathan Erdmann and Kay Matysik easily cruised to a 2:0 win over Marius Maskovits and Bogdan Nan (21-10, 21-14) to secure Germany’s first point in the competition. After that, Alexander Walkenhorst and Stefan Windscheif started with a terrific 11-0 run into their match with Adrian Florin Holhos/Moisa Petru Abrudan before they wrapped it up with a 21-9, 21-14 win.
“We did not know our opponents at all and so we started quite carefully as we wanted to avoid any problems or surprises,” Windscheif said. “Our goal is to finish first in this pool. Anything else won’t be just good enough for us. And I believe that we will be the favourites for the final match no matter if we get to play Greece or Belarus there.”
“The German team was simply too strong for us,” Adrian Holhos commented. “They have a lot more experience than we have. We are happy to be here and to participate in this Olympic qualifying event. We do not have that many chances to make it any further in this competition. We are also pleased with the organisation of this tournament; everything is set up really nicely here.”
Greece vs. Belarus 2:1
Home stars Georgios Kotsilianos and Nikos Zoupanis delighted the local audience in Thessaloniki as they recorded two straight-set wins in their respective matches with teams from Belarus to make sure the host country will be playing in the final on Sunday. Things had not started in the best way for Greece following the 0-2 loss of Ioannis Roumeliotakis/Fernandos Billiris to Aliaksandr Dziadkou and Aliaksandr Kavalenka but Kotsilianos and Zoupanis performed strong not dropping a set in the two matches that followed.
Belarus vs. Romania 2:0
After losing to Greece and Germany respectively earlier in the day, Belarus and Romania returned to the sand on Saturday afternoon with the intention to stay alive in the competition and secure a ticket to Round 4. Belarus eventually had the upper hand to achieve this feat whilst Romania bids farewell to the Continental Cup. The match up starring the two countries who had lost in the semis had no much suspense since the players from Belarus did not drop a set and tomorrow will be playing the losers of the final starring Germany and Greece for second place in Pool E.
Aliaksandr Dziadkou of Belarus said: “We managed to relax and played good. Our goal was to make it to the top three of this tournament and we have achieved it. Now we will try to finish the tournament in second place. Most probably we will be playing again with Greece and this time around we will try to be the ones who celebrate in the end.”
Romania’s Marius Maskovits said: “I expected more from this match but the Belarusian guys were really better than us. We are not professional Beach Volleyball players and we started practicing and preparing for this tournament only 10 days ago. This is just the beginning of the season and we are hoping to perform better in the next tournaments that we will contest.”
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