26/09/2011 22:27
Germany beat Serbia to claim a direct quarterfinal ticket
2011 CEV Volleyball European Championship - Women
Belgrade, Serbia, September 26, 2011. Germany overcame host Serbia in tonight’s “final” of Pool A, thus giving the Germans a direct ticket for the quarter finals. The team of head coach Giovanni Guidetti showed outstanding team-spirit and classy volleyball. Serbia on the other side couldn’t reach their high-level game they showed before.
Best scorer of the match was Angelina Grün with twenty points. Jovana Brakocevic contributed 18 kills for Serbia.
Host Serbia jumped out for a 4-1 lead in the first set with setter Maja Ognjenovic sending some service hammers into the German court. Germany’s answer was not long in coming as the team of head coach Giovanni Guidetti scored four times in a row to turn around the score at 5-4. Impressively, the battle was launched right from the beginning. At the second technical timeout, Germany still led by one point. It was a neck-and-neck race with both teams showing spectacular rallies both at the net and in defense. Serbia’s coach Zoran Terzic called his players off court at 19-20 to give them new instructions. It didn’t help as Angelina Grün brought up set point for Germany at 24-22 with a scorching winner from the left, before Corina Ssuschke-Voigt brilliantly closed the set out for the Germans with a clever tip over the tall Serbian blockers.
Guidetti’s team kept the momentum in the beginning of the second set, forcing Terzic to ask for an early break at 3-6. It apparently was successful as the hosts reduced the gap to one point at the first technical timeout. However, it was not good enough. German setter Kathleen Weiss put a lot of pressure on the Serbian passers, before Christiane Fürst blocked for a 12-8 Germany lead. The Serbs then completely lost focus, offering their opponents too many easy points. On the other side, the German team showed excellent volleyball and remarkable team spirit. Ssuschke closed the second set out at 25-15.
Two sets down; Serbia didn’t give up in the third set. At the second technical timeout, the hosts were one point ahead. Setter Ognjenovic forced the middles to change tactics against the German team who played outstanding in defense tonight. Numerous times the tall Serbian spikers needed four or five attempts to overcome the German defensive system. However, Brizitka Molnar hammered the Mikasa down to give Serbia a 21-17 lead. This was enough for the Serbian team who never looked back.
Nevertheless, Germany bounced back strongly in the fourth period. At 3-9, Serbia had already used both timeouts whilst the German players recovered quickly after the loss of the third set. The West Europeans led by seven points at the second technical break. This was far enough as the Serbian ladies didn’t come back. Ssuschke ended it with a hammer through the middle to close the set and match out 25-17.
Germany head coach Giovanni Guidetti: “Congratulations to my players, they have surprised me positively; I think we showed one of our best matches of this season. To win against Serbia is more than perfect; that means my team plays high-quality volleyball. Serbia has strong tactical, physical and technical skills, but tonight we played with more confidence and I’m sure it’ll give us a boost of energy; I believe we can compete and win.”
Germany captain Margareta Anna Kozuch: “We are more than satisfied with our performance tonight. It is always hard to play with Serbia, but we were highly concentrated. The first set was hard for us, but we planned every ball very carefully. The resistance of Serbia was strong. Now, the quarterfinals are the most important thing ahead of us.”
Serbia head coach Zoran Terzic: “Congratulations to Germany; they deserved to win, they played better, they played aggressively. We had all the skills to outplay them, but we didn’t use the fact we played in front of our audience. Maybe it’s good for us that we lost, because now we can focus on the match versus Romania and, hopefully, versus Poland in the semifinals; I think we have a good chance to win.”
Serbia captain Jelena Nikolic: “Congratulations to the German team. I have to say they overpowered us in each and every aspect of the game. They were constantly changing their rhythm; they were playing aggressively, so they deserved to win tonight. We still have a chance to enter the quarterfinals, but we have to work hard; I’m sure this will not interfere with our plans.”
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