Vienna, Austria, September 12, 2011. Slovenia nearly gave away a 2:0 lead against Turkey this afternoon to finish off its campaign in Pool A in second place after a hard-fought 3:2 win.

Slovenia was tactically well prepared for this match and exploited a weak Turkish defense to pull away in the opening set and never looking back the guys in green jerseys stepped up to finish it at 25-18.

Turkey improved the quality of its game in set 2, especially in reception, but still had to leave also this section of the game to Slovenia. By this moment Alen Sket had already scored 13 points all alone, including some of the most deciding rallies in set 1 and 2.

The course of the game changed suddenly as Turkey jumped to a 16:9 lead in set 3; propelled by Emre Batur and Erhan Dünge, their attacks worked perfectly while Slovenia had slowed down the pace.

After a close start, Turkey sped up also in the fourth set after the second mandatory stop and with some terrific defensive play the guys in red frustrated Slovenia and stretched the game to the tie-break.

With the second place in Pool A at stake, Slovenia returned to its impressive form from set 1 and 2, Sket recorded 6 more points to finish on top of the charts this afternoon with 25 while Serhat Coskun totaled 29 for Turkey.

“We started well, but we lost our concentration from the second set. In attack we didn’t take advantage of our opportunities and made the wrong decisions. We came back in the fifth and scored the big points. I think we are good enough to win another game here” said Slovenian star Tine Urnaut.

“Our goal was to get the second spot in Pool A and we have achieved that. We performed well in all games, except for the first set against Serbia. No matter who we play next we will have to step up again”, added Slovenian head coach Veselin Vukovic

Even though his team came up short, Turkish head coach Veljko Basic saw a lot of positives in the game. “I know the Slovenian team very well; they played very well in the first two sets with their good service and without many mistakes. We started our comeback in the second set, serving better and also our block defense started working properly. Even if when we fell behind 0:2 we didn’t lose our composure. In the fifth set both teams were really tired and my team started very badly so the victory was out of reach for us. We are still progressing and that’s the most important thing for me”.