Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic, September 10, 2011. The home guys of the Czech Republic claimed this afternoon their first match of the EuroVolley 2011 after a real marathon against Portugal, winner of the 2010 CEV European League.
The Czechs literally stormed out as they dominated the scene with fast, powerful and precise spikes. Portugal returned the favor in set 2 by playing with excellent consistency in attack as well as in blocking, for a second 25-20. Both teams looked extremely nervous in the third set as their performance was affected by many mistakes; more than 5’000 spectators were backing up the home heroes but after a tie at 14, Portugal was able to claim a minimum margin to finish it at 25-21. The Czechs were determined to demonstrate their skills and full potential in front of such a massive audience, stepped up in all fundamentals and sealed set 4 at 25-16. After more than 2 hours, they eventually stroke their first win in this home European Championship by claiming also a very tight tie-break (15-13).
“We are evidently happy to have won as the game was tough and we were all nervous being the first match of the tournament. We were searching for some good tactics to defeat Portugal and luckily in the final sets Jan Stokr played at his best. Our fantastic fans contributed to the final result too” stated Czech captain Ondrej Hudecek.
“I am happy with the victory but not with the performance of the team. In the past three years we have played Portugal three times and it always ended up in a tie-break. We wanted to put some more pressure on our opponents, but our service and defense did not work as we had wished” commented Czech head coach Jan Svoboda.
“We played the Czech team thousand times and thousand times the score was 3:2 for one or the other” said Portugal’s team captain Joao José. “We have lost the most important match with the Czechs this afternoon. They were stronger in the final sets. Congrats”.
Juan Diaz, coach of Portugal, added: “We were not able to hold the opponent under pressure while serving or attacking during the whole game. We wish the Czech team good luck in accomplishing their mission in this home tournament”.