Durrës, Albania, September 1, 2018. The Netherlands opened their campaign in Pool I of the 2018 CEV U19 Volleyball European Championship – Women on a positive note after a 3-0 win over the hosts from Albania. The Dutch players needed only 64 minutes on Saturday to record their first win in the pool stage of the competition. In the second match of the day, Poland won over Bulgaria in straight sets, not allowing their opponents to turn things in their favour. Italy gave one set away to Belarus, but no big surprises came from that matchup, as the Azzurrine won 3-1.
Albania vs. The Netherlands 0-3 (11-25, 13-25, 15-25)
• The match lasted 64 minutes and it ended in a three set defeat in Albania’s debut in the final phase of #EuroVolleyU19W.
• Much to the delight of the home fans, Albania scored the first point of this historic tournament, but that was the only highlight of the game for the home team coached by Roland Tarja.
• The Oranje girls extended their lead to 21-8 in the second part and despite a mini-revival by Albania, sealed the second set at 25-13, with Annick Meijers adding six more points to her name.
• The third set was a replica of the second, with the Netherlands leading from start to end and the Albanian team was powerless to resist.
• Annick Meijers scored 15 points for Netherlands, with Vera Mulder adding 10 for her team.
Roland Tarja, head coach of Albania: “I was stunned by the difference in the level of play between the two teams. To be frank, we did expect the level to be high, but we found out that it is much higher. The Netherlands was the team we were expected to rival with, but my team apparently suffered the pressure of playing at such a high level. We made many mistakes, unforced ones, but I hope these girls will learn from this game and start correcting things in the next games.”
Julien Van de Vyver, head coach of the Netherlands: “I don’t think it was easier than expected as we had taken Albania seriously and did our job well. Of course, nothing is perfect and I did notice some unforced errors, mistakes that the other teams are going to punish us for in the other matches. I am overall satisfied, but we have to be careful in a such a group, with Italy and Poland being the favourites.”
Poland vs. Bulgaria 3-0 (25-23, 25-18, 25-22)
• The first set was a close one with the Polish players seeking to pull away, but the Bulgarians drew back every time, even equalising the result at 22-22. However, Poland emerged victorious in the end at 25-23.
• The second set started the same way, but with the Poles eager to assert their dominance on the court. Though Asen Metodiev's team fought back, they could not prevent Poland from taking this set as well.
• The players around Asen Metodiev were close to tying the match in the third part, but Poland were better in the decisive moments.
Waldemar Kawka, head coach of Poland: “This is the first match of the tournament and the first match is always hard. But the most important thing is that we won our first match in three sets. It was the start we dreamt of and we are happy. I don’t see us as favourites as there are teams better than us, but we will take it step by step.”
Asien Metodiev, head coach of Bulgaria: “We didn’t perform as we expected on the service line, we had problems with the reception initially and the sideouts after that and that’s why we lost this match. In the third set we were doing well, but we made unforgivable mistakes on the serve and allowed Poland to come back into the game. They took advantage of this and we paid the price. Of course, it is difficult after you lose the first game, especially when you have a tough group with the best teams of the continent but we will try our best.”
Belarus vs. Italy 1-3 (17-25, 20-25, 25-20, 18-25)
• Although Italy tried to take the control of the game from the very first minutes, Belarus did not allow this to happen easily, as it seemed that the players headed by Natallia Melianiuk could make it quite difficult for the Italians. However, the Azzurrine managed to win the opening set quite comfortably at 25-17.
• Belarus’ players showed their determination in the beginning of the next set for a speedy 5-0 lead, but Italy responded immediately at 7-7 and dominated the rest of the set.
• This was not the case in the third one when Belarus were more concentrated, while the Italians lost a little bit of their power to suffer a 20-25 setback.
• Italy reacted in the fourth set, trying not to complicate their lives – they took the lead from the very beginning and despite the efforts of Belarus, won the set at 25-18 and congratulated themselves with the victory.
Natallia Melianiuk, head coach of Belarus: “We lost our first match, but I hope this will be a lesson for us. I think that our next matches will be much better, because today we did not perform well as a whole.”
Massimo Bellano, head coach of Italy: “We played two good sets or maybe we played a good first set and then we started the second set badly, but recovered brilliantly and won it. In the third one, Belarus played better, much better and they deserved to win it. In the last set, we showed our way of playing and controlled the game. I am happy with the win but I think Belarus and Poland will qualify with us from this group.”
Click here for further information.