Paris, France, September 26, 2019. On the Volleyball court at the AccorHotels Arena in Paris, where the last three matches of EuroVolley 2019 are set to take place on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and the new European champions will be crowned, the coaches and the captains of semifinalists Serbia and France met with representatives of the media on Thursday evening to officially get this week's big Volleyball party in the French capital underway.
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Serbia’s coach Kovač and captain Petric ready to answer questions from the media
Slobodan Kovač, coach of Serbia: “Everyone knows in this moment, France are playing good Volleyball. If we speak about the situation before the European Championship, maybe the French team had some problems. It is a big advantage to play at home, but I believe in our players, I believe in the quality of our play. Tomorrow, I hope we can play better Volleyball.”
Nemanja Petric, captain of Serbia: “Surely we are where we want to be. We deserve to be here. We have big respect for the team of France, but we also have our chance, because we have shown that we can play at high level. We have arrived all the way here - why would we stop now? For sure, it’s not enough. We want to go further and I hope we can earn this on the court by showing a good match. I believe in my team.”
France’s coach Tillie in front of the camera
Laurent Tillie, coach of France: “When you play and win close games, your spirit is high, you are ready to fight. But I think we have played well, we are focused on what we want to do on the court. We have had some luck too, but it does not matter if we won 3-0 or 3-2. Tomorrow will be different. We are ready to have a long, long, long match.”
Benjamin Toniutti, captain of France: “We had a good training earlier; then we had video analysis to see how Serbia are playing. After this, we are going to watch the first semifinal together. I think Poland are the favourites to win the competition, but Slovenia play amazing in front of their own fans and have beaten Russia - so we will see. There have been more and more people at every game we play, so I really look forward to our match against Serbia.”
France’s captain Toniutti shares his thoughts