Vienna, Austria, September 15, 2011. As France didn’t use their opportunity to win the first set Serbia overtook control of Wednesday’s second quarterfinal at the “Wiener Stadthalle“. France achieved a come-back in the third set, but couldn’t force a tie-break. Serbia won 3-1 (32-30, 25-20, 23-25, 26-24) and qualified for the semi to play there Russia.
Serbia’s two day break was ocular in the opening of the game as they needed some time to find their rhythm and France grabbed their chance to take the lead (16:12). Even if Serbia’s attacks weren’t as effective as France’s, they could trust to their block. Three consecutive stuff-blocks of Serbia meant the equalizer in the set (17:17). In the end the set developed into a neck-to-neck race. Both teams had their own chances to win it but Ivan Miljkovic made the difference and ended the set for the benefit of Serbia (32-30).
In the first set, Serbia’s block succeeded in focusing on France’s leading scorer Earvin Ngapeth. As soon as they noticed that French opposite Antonin Rouzier had caused them a lot of troubles (10 points out of 12 attacks), they paid more attention to him. Immediately his efficiency dropped dramatically and Serbia’s last problem on the way to winning the second set was solved (25-20).
Despite trailing down 0:2, France didn’t give up and had a good start in the third set. Between the two technical time-outs they proved their qualities and took the lead (12:9). The set looked already decided (22:18) when Serbia came up again (22:20). In the end France used his second attempt to claim at least one set (25-23).
From now on, Serbia was setting the pace again and was early distancing France two to three points (12:9). France managed to stay within distance but Serbia completed its side-out constantly (23:21). Finally Serbia got two match balls (24:22) but France equalized again (24:24). As Serbia got another chance to win the match, France couldn’t stop them anymore (26-24) and the way to the semis was open for the guys mentored by Igor Kolakovic.
Ivan Miljkovic top scored with 29 points for Serbia while Antonin Rouzier totaled 25 for France.