Innsbruck, Austria, September 11, 2011. Alfred Hitchcock couldn’t have written a better screenplay than the game story for Sunday’s first match in Innsbruck. Not less than 23 set balls were played in the game before Belgium had the better end and beat France 3:1 after 125 minutes.
Belgium caught the better start in the game (12:8) before France came up and even took the lead (16:19) in the opening set. But the Belgians didn’t give up and worked hard for their first two set points in this long and thrilling game (24:22). France tried everything to counter back, but Belgium finally used its seventh opportunity to seal the first set (31-29).
Those who thought that the game couldn’t get more exciting were disabused. France set the pace almost all the way in set two. Belgium closed the gap twice (14:19, 21:23) and had the chance to come out on top. This time France converted its seventh set point to go for the 1:1 (36-34) after Belgium had missed 7 opportunities for the provisional 2:0.
Despite winning the second set, France couldn’t keep momentum on their side and they quickly saw themselves trailing down by 7 in set 3 (6:13). France committed 11 mistakes (compared to 6 for Belgium), too many to take home this set.
The pre-decisive moment of the game was a 6-0 mini-break for Belgium in middle of set 4 as they suddenly took the lead (10:12, 16:12). Although France’s top scorer Earvin Ngapeth (23) served two aces and brought his team back on track (23:23), France couldn’t prevent Belgium from winning their first match at the EuroVolley 2011.
Gert van Walle top scored for Belgium with 22 points followed by Pieter Verhees (16).
Belgium’s coach Claudio Gewehr was “really satisfied with my team’s performance. In my opinion, the deciding moment was the second set when we fought back and almost stroke it”.
Philippe Blain emphasized his team’s big problems in reception. “With a reception like this, it’s really hard to side-out. Our middle blockers couldn’t get used for almost the whole game”.
Belgium’s captain Frank Depestele said that “the great start in the third set (13:6) was the key to our success. France looked mentally tired and we used that chance. Now it’s up to us to claim the second place in Pool C”.
Pierre Pujol expressed his congratulations to Belgium. “We played really bad today. Our reception and service was terrible. Belgium deserved to win. Now we need to prepare well for our next match against Italy”.