Kortrijk, Belgium, July 14, 2018.  Russia beat Turkey in four sets in the Pool II opening match at the Final Round of the 2018 CEV U20 Volleyball European Championship - Men. In the second game in Kortrijk on Saturday, hosts Belgium pleased the home fans with an impressive shutout of Poland. Finally, Italy and France put on a quite a battle, which also ended in straight sets, in favour of the Italians.


Turkey vs. Russia 1-3 (17-25, 22-25, 25-21, 17-25)

The first set was tight through 12-12, but then Russia went on a 9-1 run to break away towards a 25-17 win. In the second set, with Adis Lagumdzija well in control at the net, Turkey opened up a 12-4 gap, but could not hold on to their lead. With another 9-1 run, the Russians caught up, before turning it around to a 25-22 win. Lagumdzija continued to be prolific in attack during the third set and Turkey managed to reduce their deficit with a 25-21 close. Set 4 was all about Russia. With Maxim Sapozhkov spearheading their offence, the Russians cruised to a 25-17 victory to win the match and the three points. Maxim Sapozhkov and Adis Lagumdzija were the best scorers of the game with 23 and 22 points, respectively.



Onur Soydan, player of Turkey: "Today we lost badly, but it's only the first day. The tournament is not finished and I hope tomorrow we will be better and we will win. Today's game was very good for Volleyball, but we are sad that we lost."

Maxim Sapozhkov, player of Russia: "All we did was follow our coach's instructions and this was enough to win the match."


Belgium vs. Poland 3-0 (25-13, 25-23, 31-29)

Doing well on all counts, the Belgians started the first set with a 9-3 lead, a blow Poland never recovered from. Led in scoring by Mathijs Desmet, the home side hammered out a speedy 25-13 win. The Poles could not hold on to the four-point lead they opened at 8-4 and maintained through 18-14 in the second set. In the money time, Belgium kept their cool to turn things around to a 25-23 close. Set 3 was a real roller-coaster. At first, Poland managed a five-point lead; then Belgium went three points ahead. After 17-17, a fiery battle for every point took place. The next time the gap exceeded one point was at 31-29 Belgium’s way for a straight-set victory. Remigiusz Kapica was the top scorer of the match with 16 points for Poland. Mathijs Desmet followed right behind him with 15 points for the winners.



Seppe Van Hoyweghen, player of Belgium: "We started very sharp and won the first set very easy. In the second set, they put on a lot of serving pressure and made it difficult for us. We lost a lot of points, but we kept fighting, so we could win the set in the end. In the third set we made many mistakes, but the most important thing is that we won."

Bartosz Michalak, player of Poland: "This was our first match of the tournament, but we did not show our best game. We are going to play better and better from one game to the next. We must forget about today's match, but we must analyse what we did wrong and we must think about the next matches.”


Italy vs. France 3-0 (28-26, 25-18, 26-24)

In a narrowly contested first set, the only moment the gap exceeded two points was at 21-18 Italy’s way. The French caught up to prompt an exciting epilogue, which still led to a 28-26 Italian win. In the second set, France held up through 7-7. With some great blocking by Leandro Mosca, the Italians took over and cruised to a 25-18 close. The third set was tight again, with the lead switching hands several times and never exceeding two points. The set got extended into overtime, but it was again the Italians who managed to come out on top – 26-24. France’s Célestin Cardin was the top scorer of the match with 14 points. His teammate Pierre Derouillon and Italy’s Diego Cantagalli scored 13 times each.



Alessandro Acquarone, player of Italy: "We played very well and worked hard for today's victory. Tomorrow we will try to start again with the same passion."

Thomas Gill, player of France: "We lost the game because of service errors. Tomorrow that should be better. This was a tough loss but we'll bounce back."


Engage with the U20 European Championship on social media by using the competition’s official hashtag #EuroVolleyU20M.

Click here for more information.