Tirana, Albania, September 6, 2018. Turkey are the second team from Pool II of the 2018 CEV U19 Volleyball European Championship – Women to qualify for the semi-finals of the competition. On Thursday they claimed a straight 3-0 victory over France, which was enough to finish on second position among the teams that were competing in Tirana. In the other matches for the last day of the group stage, Russia, who had booked their spot in the semis on Wednesday, outclassed Germany 3-0.  Serbia recorded a victory over Slovakia at 3-0 as well and this way, both Serbia and Germany will move on to the classification matches 5-8. On the other hand, in the semi-final matches Russia will play against Poland, while Turkey will meet Italy.

Serbia vs. Slovakia 3-0 (25-16, 25-19, 27-25)

• Slovakia were better in the first minutes of the first set, but the Serbians soon took the initiative, opening the match with a 25-16 win. 
• Team Serbia came out with all guns blazing in the beginning of the next set and with the result being 5-0 in their favour, the head coach of Slovakia Michal Matušov called a timeout. Although the Slovakian players were trying to close the initial gap, with Serbia’s reception suffering at moments, the players headed by Marijana Boricic emerged victorious at 25-19.
• Serbia made some unforced errors in the last minutes of the third set, but they were able to cope with the pressure and won at 27-25.

Marijana Boricic, head coach of Serbia: “We won, but we didn’t play well for the whole match. My girls entered the third set a little bit more relaxed than expected, we had some problems in reception. Of course, losing yesterday from Turkey had its impact on my players. Now we will be waiting to see what our next matches will be.” 

France vs. Turkey 0-3 (20-25, 18-25, 17-25)

• The first set was marked by interesting rallies, but Turkey were more stable in the different aspects of the game, winning it at 25-20.
• The players of France weren’t performing so well in reception and their opponents took advantage of this in the second set, closing it in their favour.
• It was a close game in the early stages of the next set with the play going point-for-point, but as the set was developing, the players headed by Sahin Catma started to perform better and better and eventually emerged victorious at 25-17.

Philippe-Marie Salvan, head coach of France: “It was a difficult game because we did not have anything to win. It means that it was difficult to motivate my players. There was just the pleasure to be on the court together as a team. On the other hand, the Turkish team was really motivated as they wanted to go to the semi-finals. In that case, my team did not have the mentality to fight.” 

Sahin Catma, head coach of Turkey: “Today was a very important match for us, against a very strong team, but we just had to win. Congratulations to my team, but we must say that we haven’t finished our work here yet. We want to join the Russian team and to qualify for the semi-finals.”

Russia vs. Germany 3-0 (25-16, 25-19, 25-14)

• Although both teams entered the court determined to win every point, following each other in the score, after the twelfth point, Russia started taking the lead for an eventual 25-16 win. 
• The Russian side continued to perform better than the opposition, as they were more precise in all the components and although Germany were trying it hard, they couldn’t resist, so they ended up losing the second set as well.
• Russia were leading at 5-0 in the third set, showing good skills in defence. However, Germany continued with sharp attacks and got closer to their opponents at 7-5. Russia responded immediately and Germany coach Manuel Hartmann was forced to take a timeout at 12-6. However, it did not help a lot as the players around Alexander Karikov were perfect on block, thus emerging victorious at 25-14.

Alexander Karikov, head coach of Russia: “Everything has just started for us. Nobody knows what will happen in the next matches. New teams are arriving here, in Tirana, and we haven’t seen them. We need to forget the pool phase now and start preparing for the next matches.”

Manuel Hartmann, head coach of Germany: “We wanted to reach the semi-finals and we are sad because we couldn’t do so. But I must say that Russia were just great today and I want to congratulate them.  Even if they were already qualified, they were fighting. Their blocking game was just great.”