Luxembourg, June 16, 2019. Turkey confirmed their Final Four seat on Sunday when they won their sixth CEV Volleyball European Golden League - Men pool match against Latvia. With a 3-0 win, they highlighted that they might be favourites when the Finals commence in Estonia on Friday. On Saturday Belarus managed to snatch two sets that were enough to secure the top spot in Pool C and thus join Estonia, the Netherlands and Turkey in the semifinals that are due to take place on June 21 in Tallinn. The pairings for the semis will become known following a Drawing of Lots due to be held on Monday morning at the CEV headquarters in Luxembourg.

Pool A

Latvia vs. Turkey 0-3 (18-25, 16-25, 14-25)

• Turkey are the only team to finish the pool phase of the 2019 European Golden League unbeaten.
• Latvia started the game with their second lines and could not compete on the same level as Turkey.
• Former Latvian female basketball star Zane Rozite is the godmother of Adis Lagumdzjia – best Turkish scorer of this match with 14 points.

Guntis Atars, assistant coach of Latvia: “We showed a poor performance today. We started with a number of players from the second unit and unfortunately, we lost to the opponents in all aspects of the game. We are upset at how we lost in front of our fans. But we will learn also from this match. In general, I think we had a good tournament except for the last game. We showed a good performance during this competition and for such a young team, the final result is respectable.”

Erkan Togan, assistant coach of Turkey: “Six games and six wins - great feeling. We started the match with some new players and they played great, so that is an extra victory for us. Now we will fly to Estonia for the Final Four and we hope to get at least to the final. I think we deserve it because we have practiced hard and have played very well this far. The team has a good atmosphere and it all together brings the result.”

Slovakia vs. Belgium 3-1 (21-25, 25-22, 25-20, 25-21)

• Poprad saw two Slovak victories and six points, after the women's victory against Ukraine the men's team won against Belgium also in four sets.
• Slovakia finished third in the Pool A, ninth overall, two places better than last year.
• Slovak captain Tomas Krisko (19 points, 73% in attack was best player of the match), Belgium captain Lou Kindt (20 points) was the best player of Belgium.

Andrej Kravarik, head coach of Slovakia: “It is great that both of our teams made the fans happy today in Poprad. Our performance was good today, much better than on Wednesday in Humenne against Latvia. We had team spirit, we fought and we showed our game - what we should have done during the whole competition. I think Turkey was the best team in our Pool and they will be the favourites in the Final Four. We finished two places better that last year, but I think that even though we missed some experienced players, we were able to show more.”

Lou Kindt (pictured above in attack), opposite for Belgium: “We played at high level in the first set, then we slowed down a little bit. We could not find the right solutions. In the fourth set it was better again, but it was not enough; Krisko served really well in the end. We cannot be satisfied with the results, we had some injuries and played with a young team, but we could have played better in this competition.”

Pool B

Croatia vs. The Netherlands 3-0 (25-19, 25-23, 25-22)

• The Netherlands had already booked their ticket to the Final Four last Wednesday as they beat Estonia 3-0 and Croatia won 3-1 against Spain.
• Croatia had the better offence today in Varazdin, 59% efficiency over just 43% for the Netherlands.
• Filip Sestan (CRO) and Thijs ter Horst (NED) were tied as top scorers with both 14 points to their name.

Emanuele Zanini, head coach of Croatia: “Today was not easy, playing again after three days. We just came back from Spain. I have to congratulate my players for finding the motivation and energy to play a good match against the Netherlands. Unfortunately, even though we have more points than the Netherlands, we cannot qualify as group winners. Anyway, for us it is important to grow, tactically and mentally. So in the European Golden League we demonstrated that we took an important step and increased our level, our competitive spirit and the organisation of the team.”

Estonia vs. Spain 0-3 (24-26, 23-25, 20-25)

• Spain were the better team in all elements of the game and deserved the win. Estonia were trying to catch their rhythm throughout the match but did not succeed in doing so.
• Rauno Tamme entered the match at the end of the first set and was the best scorer for Estonia with nine points. Andres Villena scored a match-high 15 points for Spain.
• Spain finished with three wins to claim second place in Pool B, Estonia were fourth with one win. The Netherlands won the group with four wins, Croatia finished third winning three matches and taking 11 points. Estonia are hosting the Final Four tournament next weekend in Tallinn, the three other teams playing are the Netherlands, Turkey and Belarus.

Robert Täht, outside hitter of Estonia: “We did try hard and it felt good before the match. But when it started nothing really was going our way, we did not find good solutions and lost our heads too fast. Spain were the better team tonight and deserved the win for sure.”

Pool C

Ukraine vs. Belarus 3-2 (23-25, 25-23, 25-22, 23-25, 15-11)

• In order to win a ticket to the Final Four, the Ukrainian team could only concede one set to Belarus in the final round of the group phase.  However, Ukraine conceded already in the starting set. 
• Ukraine could not achieve their goal despite the enviable charge shwon in attack, with Ian Iereshchenko (who scored 17 points in total), Dmytro Viietskyi (16), Oleh Plotnytskyi (15) and, interestingly, the middle blocker Yurii Semeniuk (17, with 9 of them being blocks!) 
• Head coach Ugis Krastins' team failed to properly contain the leaders of the visiting team, namely Radzivon Miskevich (22 points), Siarhei Busel (13, of which 6 were blocks) and Andrei Radziuk (12). 
• In addition, the Ukrainians again made many mistakes (21). Therefore, although they won the second and third sets, in the decisive fourth, Miskevich scored eight points and Belarus secured their spot in the finals after tying the match at 2-2.
• Ukraine eventually won the match, but Belarus claimed the top spot in the pool and with it, a ticket to Tallinn as well.

Finland vs. Czech Republic 2-3 (25-18, 25-27, 15-25, 25-51, 13-15)

• Czech Republic took their fourth win in the Golden League beating Finland 3-2 on their home ground in Mikkeli. However that was not enough for the Czechs to qualify for the Final Four.
• Finland lost all six matches in the Golden League, winning only four sets in the process. 
• Jan Hadrava was top scorer of the match for Czech Republic with 24 points.

Joel Banks, head coach of Finland: “We had a chance to win this match. The Czech players are very experienced and played very well. I am of course very disappointed for our results in the Golden League, but I think our young team has a lot of potential in the future.”

Michal Nekola, head coach of Czech Republic: “We started the match very badly, especially in reception. After that, we made some substitutions and new guys helped us improve our game. This was a very close match except for the third set. We are very happy to win the last game and that we won four out of six matches. It is of course a disappointment that we didn’t qualify to the Final Four.”