Tallinn, Estonia, June 22, 2019.  Turkey are the new winners of the European Golden League. They beat Belarus in an emphatic 3-0 to secure their first ever title in #EuroLeagueM. Turkish setter Arslan Ekşi̇ received the award for the Most Valuable Player of the Final Four held in Tallinn. The Turkish captain led his troops to victory in all of their group stage and Finals matches. In the bronze medal match, the Netherlands grabbed the opportunity for an immediate revenge after yesterday's tough loss against Belarus. The 'Oranges' recovered quickly and made it count against Estonia, whom they beat in three sets. Turkey and Belarus will now contest the FIVB Challenger Cup in early July in Slovenia - where a ticket to the 2020 edition of the elite FIVB Volleyball Nations League will be at stake.

Gold Medal Match | Belarus vs. Turkey 0-3 (16-25, 21-25, 19-25)

• Turkish setter and MVP Arslan Ekşi̇ must have felt like being in a playground, that's how easy he could manoeuvre his attackers against a one-block or in some cases no block at all. 
• Next to Adis Lagumdzija he could rely on outside-hitters Burutay Subasi and Yasin Aydin to settle the scores. With all three of them in double digits by the end of the second set meant that Belarus had to cover a lot of ground in block. They were not able to record a blocking point up until then.
• Belarus seemed to recover after the tough set loss in the second, gaining a three-point advantage in the third. After Metin Toy was deployed, however, Turkey cracked things up a notch. The win was imminent. 
• Adis Lagumdzija was the gold medal match top scorer with 16 points. 

Arslan Ekşi̇, captain of Turkey: “It’s amazing. In our history it is the first time that we win the CEV Golden League. I’m very happy to be with such brave players and staff. I’m very thankful for everyone. Today we showed a great performance in the final. We showed that we are the best team in the Golden League. We played eight matches and we won all of them. We deserve it. We are happy to go to Slovenia, for the Challenger Cup. It will be a more difficult tournament than here. Unexpectedly three players from our team have to go serve in the army. But we have very strong young players that will come there. We will try our best.

I’m surprised to be chosen as the MVP as a setter. I know from just one time before the Brazilian setter Ricardo was named MVP. So I’m very happy to receive this present. It’s for the whole team. Thank you.”

Arslan Ekşi̇ (10) and Adis Lagumdzija celebrating

Adis Lagumdzija, opposite of Turkey: “We are extremely happy, because this is the biggest accomplishment for Turkish men's volleyball in their history.  We were expecting a really difficult game against Belarus, but eventually the result was 3-0, so it was very surprising for us. We expected more pressure from Belarus, we will play against them also at the European Championship, so it was like a preparation ahead of September.”
 
Nedim Özbey, head coach of Turkey: “We believe in ourselves, we always aim to win and we came here to get the title. We came here with many young players, but they believe in their skills and they believed that it's possible to win this tournament. Before the start of the Final Four I said that the semifinal against Estonia would be like a real final, because the most important thing was to win it. We expected Estonia to play much better. Belarus surprised everyone when they qualified to the Final Four, at the beginning of the European League no one could expected to see them here. They won a lot of matches, they have power, but today they didn’t show it.”

Bronze Medal Match | The Netherlands vs. Estonia 3-0 (25-22, 25-16, 25-16)

• The Netherlands presented a team with a completely different attitude than on Friday. In the semifinal, in the first set alone they faulted on seven service occasions, in the bronze medal match they only missed that many in the entire three sets. As a result, the pressure was on Estonia from the beginning.
• Estonia were struggling in attack, in set two they managed to score only 9. Although their efficiency was at 53%, the Dutch had a remarkable 71% to cover that.
• In front of 1,700 Estonian fans the home team were unable to turn the tables on the 'Lange Mannen'. In the third set they met a strong Dutch block who scored five direct points. The motivation was gone, and the Netherlands cruised to victory.
• Nimir Abdel-Aziz was top scorer with 16 points, followed by his teammate Thijs ter Horst with 15. For Estonia Timo Tammemaa scored 10 times. 

Roberto Piazza, head coach of the Netherlands: “This was a totally different match than yesterday, we started in a good mood. Today we were really good, I do not know where we were yesterday. We have to be able to play like this also when there is pressure on us. Maybe I put too much pressure on my players, I do not know. Today everyone played perfect.”

Nimir Abdel-Aziz, captain of the Netherlands: “Too bad that yesterday we did not manage to play like we did today, however I think it was a good reaction, because of course our goal was to play in the final, but today we had another match to play. We had to show ourselves that we can reach a higher level than yesterday, and we did. I did not come here to win bronze, it's fun that we won the last match, but still we are disappointed.”

Nimir Abdel-Aziz (14) celebrating a point with his team

Kert Toobal, captain of Estonia: “Everybody knew that it was going to be a difficult game for both teams after losing yesterday, because the goal for this tournament for all teams was the same - to qualify to the final and get a spot in the Challenger Cup. In the first set we had our moments, but later we struggled with problems, our service didn’t work and the Netherlands had the advantage, keeping serve on a high level, so we could not respond. Our fans are always with us, so it's disappointing that we couldn't give them the pleasure of a win. That's sport, that's the way it is, we will try to do better next time.”
 
Gheorghe Cretu, head coach of Estonia: “The match was not easy, they were very aggressive in serve and we were not able to handle it in reception. If we had been able to put a little bit of pressure on the other side, like we did in the first set, we would have had a chance to come back and tie by winning a few points in a row, but eventually we lost. Moreover, in the second set, immediately our serve stopped working, and we were not able to overcome these problems.”

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