Vienna, Austria, September 10, 2011. Serbia backed up its ambition to medal at the EuroVolley 2011 by literally outclassing Turkey in the “Wiener Stadthalle” in only 72 minutes of play. The bronze medalists from the 2010 FIVB World Championship in Italy dominated the game right from the start with an array of splendid offensive solutions. On the other hand, the Serbian defense frustrated Turkey as it controlled many spikes coming down from the other side of the net.
Ivan Miljkovic displayed a great performance tonight scoring 19 points and anchored his team in a game whose final outcome was never to be questioned. He was well supported by Dragan Stankovic and Nikola Kovacevic who chipped 10 apiece. Burutay Subasi top scored for Turkey with 9 while Serhat Coskun contributed 8. While Miljkovic was the evident leader of the Serbian team, Turkey struggled to find the rhythm all the way and had a short comeback only as the Serbian star left the court at the end of set 3. Miljkovic came back to seal the deal for his side and the final 3:0.
“Serbia is really a world-class team. We have a lot of young players who now play their first big tournament. It wasn’t a good day for Turkish Volleyball. Tomorrow we play against Austria, which will be the decisive game to advance to the next round and we really want to win that game”, said Turkish captain Sinan Cem Tanik.
On the other hand Nikola Kovacevic was obviously content with the effort of his team. “We had a good game right from the start. We knew that we were the favorites but still everyone gave 100 percent. Still we have to forget this game and focus on the game against Slovenia tomorrow”.