Belgrade, Serbia, September 28, 2011. In tonight’s second playoff match in Belgrade, the Czech Republic proved too strong for France. In 102 minutes of play, the Czech demonstrated their power by beating “les bleus” 3-1 (25-21, 23-25, 25-14, 25-14). The East Europeans will face Germany in tomorrow’s quarterfinal of the 2011 CEV Volleyball European Championship – Women.
Best scorer of the match was Czech Aneta Havlickova with 28 kills. France’s best player was captain Anna Rybaczewski. France experienced the better start into tonight’s playoff match versus the Czech Republic.
The team of head coach Fabrice Vial led 8-5 at the first technical timeout. The French were solid in service reception and stopped the powerful Czech spikers several times at the net. As foreseen in the game plan, the French servers put a lot of pressure on Helena Havelkova. However, the team of Jiri Siller kept cool, showing an impressive finish in the first set. A burst of speed from 15-16 to 21-17 was enough to conclude the first period 25-21 in their favor.
The French were again in front in the second set. But compared to the first set, “les bleus” hold the lead. Even though the Czech never gave up, France kept the upper hand by doing fewer mistakes. Anna Rybaczewski brought up set point at 24-22, before two rallies later Christina Bauer leveled the match one set to one with an impressive block kill.
In the third and fourth set, the Czech Republic made short work of their opponents. An undisputed 25-14 in the third period was confirmed by another crushing 25-14 in the fourth and last set. Vial’s team couldn’t live up to their power in the beginning of the match. It seemed as the first part of the encounter was too energy-sapping for France, both mentally as well as physically. On the other hand, the Czechs showed great fighting spirit and persistence to close the match out, thus giving them the chance to challenge Germany in Thursday’s first quarterfinal at Pionir hall in Belgrade.
Czech Republic head coach Jiri Siller: “Congrats to the head coach of France for doing a good work with his team. I was afraid before the match started. France played well tonight, but we outplayed them with our attacks, which were perfect tonight. I’m happy we won this match.”
Czech Republic captain Ivana Plchotova: “I have to say that this was a very hard and difficult match. The performance of both teams was equal in the first two sets, but we played better in the third and fourth set.”
France head coach Fabrice Vial: “Congratulations to the team of Czech Republic. I am very disappointed for losing tonight. We played well the first two sets, but I don’t understand what happened after that. Our reception and serves were very poor tonight, so I have to say again I’m disappointed and sad.”
France captain Anna Rybaczewski: “Congratulations to the Czech team. We are disappointed for not reaching our goal. I think we performed well in the first set, but later on, the level of our performance dropped. I’m sad for losing, but I wish all the best to the Czech team.”