Púchov, Slovakia, April 8, 2018. Italy and Belgium continued their winning streak, as they beat Russia (3-1) and Ukraine (3-0), respectively while France claimed their first victory routing co-hosts Slovakia (3-0) on the second competition day of the 2018 CEV U18 Volleyball European Championship - Men in Púchov.
Live streaming of all matches is available here.
Italy vs. Russia 3-1 (25-20, 17-25, 25-21, 25-23)
The young players from the Italian penisula dictated the tempo of the opening set and eventually of the whole game as well. Their Russian opponents managed to improve their serve and block and that helped them win the second set, but not change the course of the match. Their last effort was a successful comeback from 15-20 to 22-23 late in the fourth, but Italy took the set from their hands with 25-23.
Tommaso Stefani from Italy was uplifted: "It was a difficult match, Russia is very strong, much stronger than last summer, when we played against them during the U17 European Championship in Turkey. I even lost my voice today, we had a lot of fun on the court and I think tomorrow we will be even better. The key to the victory was that we are a really very good group, good friends and we have one goal." Tommaso was also the best scorer of his team for the second day in a row, but he keeps it cool: "I do not follow my points, this is not important for me. Important is the success of the team, this is what I am looking for."
Coach Mikhail Nikolaev from Russia was a man of few words after the game: "Our serve was not ok and our setter felt nervous today. I need to think before the match tomorrow, what I will do with the team."
France vs. Slovakia 3-0 (25-17, 25-21, 26-24)
The Slovak team started the match with confidence, even maintaining the lead at 8-3, but as France started to attack better, the results leveled, but the ending of this set, as well as the ones that followed, belonged to France. Slovakia managed to show a good game, but something was missing as the Slovaks just could not seal the deal, even missing two set-balls and losing at 24-26 in the third and final set.
Ibrahim Lawani, outside hitter from France scored 20 points today: "This was the best answer after yesterday's loss against Belgium. We are still in the competition and we are going step by step."
Erik Gabor, coach of the Slovaks agreed that his team could use a little luck: "We can play good volleyball against every opponent, but our problem is that we make mistakes in the final moments of the set. We had problems with reception in the first set and we could not attack through the middle. In the end it was about one ball that decided everything, it is a pity."
Ukraine vs. Belgium 0-3 (17-25, 20-25, 14-25)
Belgium had a nervous start, but five aces in the first set were the recipe of their success also later in the game. The second and third sets came easily to the team, as Ukraine did not manage to show notable resistance. As the game ended, Belgium had recorded 13 aces, whilst Ukraine managed only two.
Hryhorii Tsupin, opposite hitter from Ukraine: "We started well, but we still lost the first two sets. We got very disappointed and then the result in the third set was how it was."
Mieke Moyaert of Belgium was happy about their success, but also eager about their next pool match: "We served very well, only in the second set, we made few mistakes, but the team fought and my players followed the game plan. We played smart and tried to find solutions against their big middle-blocker. I am happy, because we have two victories and maximum points after two games. Tomorrow we will meet Italy, it will be an interesting game and also a re-match of last year's gold medal match in the U17 European Championship. We lost that time and we are motivated to show them that we have grown from last year."
The games will continue with the pool play tomorrow and reach the climax in Zlin, Czech Republic, where the eventual champions will be crowned on April 15.
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