Luxembourg, May 18, 2018. The 2018 edition of the revamped CEV Volleyball European League starts this weekend. The competition consists of two tiers, thus accounting for a Golden and Silver European League with participation of 12 and 8 national teams per gender, respectively. The men’s Golden European League features the top 12 teams in Europe as per the latest continental ranking, with the exception of those participating in the 2018 FIVB Volleyball Nations League. The first matches in Pool A and C will take place on Saturday, with action in Pool B getting underway on Sunday. On Saturday, Belgium’s Red Dragons will play Sweden in Örkelljunga, as Slovakia host Estonia in the other Pool A fixture. In Pool C, there is a derby between Portugal and Spain as Finland host Czech Republic on home soil in Mikkeli. On Sunday, Turkey and the Netherlands will be hosting Ukraine and Slovenia in Pool B, respectively.
Pool A
Sweden vs. Belgium
• The visitors from Belgium finished fourth in last year’s edition of the European Championship and they will be a hard nut to crack for the home team.
• Boosted by home fans and the fact that they ended up as bronze medallists in their first-ever European League campaign in 2017, the Swedish players will do their best to challenge their opponents on home soil in Örkelljunga.
• Several players in the Swedish team have played in Belgium’s top-flight division in the past few years, such as Dardan Lushtaku, Jens Ahremark and David Pettersson to name a few.
• 19-year-old outside-spiker August Borna will play his first-ever official match with the Swedish men’s national team.
• It is the first men’s European League match in Forum Örkelljunga, which is home to Örkelljunga VK, who finished as bronze medallists in Elitserien, the men’s top-flight division in Sweden.
“We are taking on a very tough opponent. Belgium finished fourth in the European Championship in Poland last year, and I believe they are only getting better and better but so do we! We have to play our best in both attack and defence to have a chance. If we manage to play up to our full potential, this will be a hard-fought battle,” said Johan Isacsson, head coach of the Swedish men’s national team.
Slovakia vs. Estonia
• It is the tenth match in history between Slovakia and Estonia, with Slovakia leading the way with six wins to three losses. However, Estonia have claimed the last two matches in a row.
• Slovakia will be missing their star outside hitter Tomáš Kriško.
• The setter of Estonia, Andres Toobal spent the last club season in Slovakia – claiming the national cup as well as the national league title with VK PRIEVIDZA.
Andrej Kravarik, head coach of Slovakia: “We are ready for the start of the competition. I think it will be a close game against Estonia. They have a strong team, but we are playing at home and I hope that we can get a positive result. There is always a great atmosphere here in Poprad, and we enjoy playing here. We have some young players in our team, and they have a chance to shine on the European stage. We are looking forward to the start of the Golden European League.”
Gheorghe Cretu, head coach of Estonia: “It is a special situation for the coaches, because we did not have time to have all players at the start of the preparation phase, but on the other side it is good, because the players are in good shape after the end of the club season. We miss two players, but except for that, we are complete. There are more changes to the Slovakian team, since they have many new names on their roster, but they are still a very good team with high ambitions. Our goal is to reach the Final Four. I like the new system of the Golden European League, since it is good for the fans that they will see their favourite team playing at home.”
Pool B
Turkey vs. Ukraine
• Turkey start their European League campaign with two home matches, playing first Ukraine in Sanliurfa, a city in the south-eastern section of Anatolia, and the Netherlands in Van next Wednesday.
• Ukraine are the gold medal winners from the 2017 edition of the European League.
• The remaining opponent Turkey play in Pool B is Slovenia.
• After six legs of tough games, the eventual winners of each pool plus the second placed team with the best score will join hosts Czech Republic for the Final Four tournament scheduled for June 13-14 in Karlovy Vary.
Turkey Team Manager Aziz Azad: “Our team has had a good preparation phase and the matches coming up this weekend and next week will be extremely competitive. Ukraine and the Netherlands are strong teams to play with.”
Turkey coach Nedim Özbey: “I have just started working with this team packed with a couple of young players. I am quite excited to see how we will perform as a whole over the weekend.”
Turkey captain Burutay Subasi: “We have had two preparation matches so far and we were able to see where our weaknesses are. We have worked hard on our weaknesses to minimise them but Ukraine is a good team, so we will now play against them and see how it goes.”
Ugis Krastins, coach of Ukraine: “I am happy to be here in Turkey and Turkey is a tough team to play against but I look forward to the game and to enjoying a great atmosphere at the local sports hall here in Sanliurfa.”
Volodymyr Tevkun, player of Ukraine: “It is a pleasure to be here and I can say that there will be a tough battle between these two teams.”
The Netherlands vs. Slovenia
• Maarten van Garderen is back in the national team after his beach volleyball adventure in 2017 with Christiaan Varenhorst. Van Garderen, who plays for the Italian club Azimut MODENA, was very successful on the sand winning the CEV Satellite in Kharkiv and finishing 4th at the FIVB World Championship in Vienna. Despite these results, Van Garderen decided to focus on his indoor career again.
• The last time The Netherlands and Slovenia played against each other was in 2017 in the semi-final of the FIVB World League Group 2 Final Four in Australia. Slovenia won 3-0.
• The team of Slovenia is not complete in Doetinchem. They are missing some of their star players like Tine Urnaut, Alen Pajenk, Mitja Gasparini and Klemen Cebulj.
“We are ready for our first match in the Golden European League. After a few years of work the team is now very balanced. There’s a lot of competition on all positions in the court, which is a good thing. I’m curious to find out how far we can go in this European League,” said Gido Vermeulen, head coach of The Netherlands.
Pool C
Portugal vs. Spain
• The rivalry between Portugal and Spain has historic roots and is already a tradition in many sports, so the Golden European League debut with an-all Iberian duel may proof to be auspicious for the Portuguese national team that will play against a well-known opponent.
• The highlight of this rivalry happened in the 2007 European League when Spain travelled to Portugal to defeat the home team by 3-2 in a dramatic final, thus winning the tournament and shortly afterwards the Spaniards won the European Championship title in Moscow as well. In 2010, Portugal turned things around by winning the European League final held in Spain by defeating the hosts 3-1.
• Valdir Sequeira will reach 258 caps with the national team, as the naturalised Brazilian Caique Oswaldo Ferreira da Silva will make his international debut for Portugal.
Portugal coach Hugo Silva acknowledges that such a match as Portugal vs. Spain is peculiar, but prefers to focus on giving continuity to the renewal of the Portuguese team. “When playing against Spain, we know it will be balanced matches where each team doesn’t want to lose and therefore these will be very close games. On our side, we continue to introduce new players. A competition such as the Golden European League will help the team develop better rhythm and connection and, as usual, we will fight for a place in the final stage of the event. On the other hand, we already said publically that we want to be in the Final Round of the 2019 European Championship and that is our number one goal.”
The captain Alexandre Ferreira highlights that the team has in their horizon the qualification for the final phase of the European League. “I believe that the fact that we start by playing against Spain is good since theoretically this is the less strong team of the pool and we may take advantage of that to make some adjustments and try to test some new players in our team. We want to reach the finals and we know that this is possible. The preparation period has been short, but we will focus on our goal and try to reach our level of play as quickly as possible.”
Finland vs. Czech Republic
• Both Finnish national teams, the men coached by Tuomas Sammelvuo and the women headed by Tapio Kangasniemi, are more than ready to take their first step in the 2018 CEV Volleyball Golden European League on Saturday.
• The men will start their campaign on home soil in Mikkeli against the Czech Republic while the women are due to play Croatia in Split.
• Finland men’s national team played for the last 12 years in a row in the FIVB World League. The last time they took part in the European League was in 2005, when they finished second at the Final Four held in Kazan, Russia.
• Finland played the Czech Republic a year ago at the FIVB World Championship qualifier in Karlovy Vary where they beat the hosts and qualified for the Final Round due to take place later this year in Italy and Bulgaria. Therefore, memories are more than good for a couple of players who are still on the team that will be taking to the court on Saturday.
Head coach Tuomas Sammelvuo loves to see his young players progressing in their careers. “We have had not too much time to prepare and we needed to prioritise a lot. We all know that our team is young and we lack international experience. It is great that these players make every day a step forward and that they have a lot of energy.”
Tommi Siirilä came directly from the CEV Champions League Final Four to the national team after winning bronze in Kazan with Sir Colussi Sicoma PERUGIA. ”It has been happening a lot lately. It feels great to take to the court wearing the shirt of our national team. We need to fight hard to win against a good team as the Czech Republic.”
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