Kortrijk, Belgium, July 15, 2018. A spectacular five-setter opened the second competition day in Pool II at the Final Round of the 2018 CEV U20 Volleyball European Championship - Men. Poland rebounded from Saturday’s loss to Belgium with an incredible comeback from two sets down against Russia on Sunday. In the second game, France were on their way to pulling the same trick on the home side, but the Belgians managed to hold their ground in the tie-breaker. In the last match of the day, Italy beat Turkey in four sets to stay unbeaten in the competition.


Russia vs. Poland 2-3 (26-24, 25-23, 19-25, 18-25, 9-15)

Poland started well thanks to strong serving from Sebastian Adamczyk, but six serves in a row from Maxim Sapozhkov balanced it back. With good reception and with the help of an ace from Wiktor Nowak, the Poles took a 23-20 lead. Kill blocks, a tip-over from Konstantin Abaev and Sapozhkov saving a set point destroyed the strong performance of Poland – 26-24. Russia took advantage of too many faults by their opponents to take a 9-3 lead in the second set. Strong serves and spikes from Rafal Prokopczuk and Bartosz Firszt at last brought the Polish team back to a 23-23 draw, but then Viktor Pivovarov and Sapozhkov reigned for a 25-23 Russian win. In the third set Firszt and Adamczyk’s efforts paid off, as there was also lack of concentration on the Russian side. Remigiusz Kapica and Adamczyk fought on corageously and in return for their kill blocks and serves, they got to reach a tie-break. With Kapica in the mood and with deadly serves from Adamczyk, the Poles were well on their way to an unexpected, but deserved victory. Remigiusz Kapica was the top scorer for Poland with 23 points. Ivan Kuznetcov scored the most Russian points – 21.



Andrey Nozdrin, coach of Russia: “Of course we are disappointed. We will try to resolve some problems and make this team mentally ready for the next game. But we don’t have much time to do so.”

Bartosz Michalak, player of Poland: “We always play and fight to win. Even when it was 0-2, we played for it. The same as in the qualification game against Spain, where we won after losing 0-2.”


France vs. Belgium 2-3 (23-25, 22-25, 25-15, 25-16, 13-15)

“We will take revenge for our defeat against Italy and it will be against Belgium, because we practiced against them a few weeks ago,” said the French coach Jocelyn Trillon. He couldn’t keep his promise in the first two sets. Nevertheless, in a thrilling first set his team stayed in the match till 20-20. Then they made too many faults themselves and captain Matthieu Vanneste and Mathijs Desmet took profit of that for a 25-23 close. The same scenario unfolded in the second set till 20-21, when again Desmet and Berre Peters powered the set in Belgium’s advantage – 25-22. Better French blocking in the third set, strong serves from Pierre Toledo and captain Lucas Soldner and the Belgian scoring machine with sand in the engine, gave the French boys a first set win of this tournament – 25-15. In the similar story of the fourth set nice work from Célestin Cardin contributed to the 25-16 French success. He started the tiebreak with an ace. With serving faults and nerves on both sides, the Belgians came back from 3-6 to level it at 8-8. Pierre Derouillon denied Belgium’s first match point, but Dries Van Lommel blocked for the last point and his team’s second victory in as many matches. Pierre Derouillon was the best scorer of the match with 25 points while Dries Van Lommel was Belgium’s biggest point contributor with 13.



Jocelyn Trillon, coach of France: “We started too late in the match and we were looking at a 0-2 deficit. We didn’t adapt to their new playmaker either. But everything is still possible in this pool. Three matches to go…”

Berre Peters, player of Belgium: “It was a very difficult game. This is a collective victory. Even though we were losing in the tiebreak, we believed in our chances. We have a good team and everybody will always work for each other. Look at Simon Plaskie, who came in at a difficult moment, but he did his job. If you don’t believe in victory, you must not play sports.”


Turkey vs. Italy (19-25, 19-25, 25-20, 23-25)

In the first set the excellent setter Alessandro Acquarone was angry at his teammates because they were losing 8-2 against Turkey. A time-out of coach Monica Cresta and with the help of Diego Cantagalli, Daniele Lavia and especially captain Francesco Recine solved that problem to turn things around to a 25-19 close. The only problem for the Italians remained Turkish captain Adis Lagumdzija, but they were concentrated enough to claim the second set by the same result. The Turkish players fought on and with a lot of power they outplayed the Italians to take the third set 25-20 after a lot of changes in the opponents’ line-up. The fourth set was exciting as the Turks held up through 23-23, but then Lorenzo Cortesia and Daniele Lavia scored the decisive points for 25-23 Italy’s way. Adis Lagumdzija was the top scorer of the match with 25 points for Turkey while Francesco Recine scored 19 for Italy.



Akif Gokhan Öner, coach of Turkey: "I was not pleased with a lot of decisions, but we also have too much instability - sometimes we play very well, sometimes like a third division team."

Monica Cresta, coach of Italy: "We are not (yet) the favourites of this tournament. First we have to play the Russian team tomorrow."


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