Belgrade, Serbia, September 29, 2011. Germany outclassed the Czech Republic in today’s first quarterfinal at SC Pionir hall in Belgrade. The Germans proved too good for the Czechs, beating them in straight sets (25-18, 25-20, 25-17). Germany will meet defending champions Italy in Saturday’s semifinal.
Germany’s best scorer was Maren Brinker with 13 kills. The Czech Republic’s best player was Helena Havelkova with 13 points as well.
The Czech Republic jumped out for an 8-6 lead at the first technical timeout. It needed no special volleyball know-how to recognize that the Czech servers tried to put a lot of pressure on Angelina Grün in service reception. Even when for some balls German setter Kathleen Weiss was not in perfect position, she always found a way to set up her spikers convincingly. At the second technical break, the West Europeans already led by three points. Maren Brinker contributed her part to the powerful German game with seven points in set No. 1. Germany also led the statistics of aces (4-1) and block kills (3-1) after the first set.
The team of head coach Giovanni Guidetti kept control of the match in the second period. The Czechs bounced back bravely from 8-13 to 13-13, but a short burst of speed was enough for the Germans to reopen the gap to four points at 19-15. However, it seemed as the Germans were not as focused as again Serbia two days before, committing several unforced errors. Nevertheless, Margareta Kozuch brought up set ball at 24-20 with a hammer from the right, before Christiane Fürst added her fourth block kill to offer the favorites from Germany a well-deserved 2-0 set lead.
Things didn’t change in the third set. Both teams still experienced several ups and downs, especially in the beginning of set No. 3. Fürst and Grün then led Germany to a six-point lead at the second technical timeout. The Czech Republic tried their best, but the German game was too dominant today. After 79 minutes of play, Grün brought up match point for Germany at 24-16 with an impressive missile from the left. Two rallies later, Grün, again, ended it for the happy Germans 25-17, and 3-0.
Germany head coach Giovanni Guidetti: “Thank you for your wishes and I’d like to thank all my players, they performed tonight like one complete team. I think we can improve our defense and that will be positive for our motivation for the next match. I hope we will win the semifinals.”
Germany captain Margareta Anna Kozuch: “This was very difficult match. We all are looking forward to the upcoming match; I’m sure we can be victorious. Tonight, the team of the Czech Republic played well, but I think we showed the better overall performance on the court.”
Czech Republic head coach Jiri Siller: “I think we showed some good skills tonight, we fought hard, but the opponent was better than us. We lost today, but we learned something from it. I’m not happy for losing tonight, but after all, we did learn from our mistakes. I wish Germany all the best for the semifinals.”
Czech Republic captain Ivana Plchotova: “I’d like to congratulate the German team for tonight’s victory. I have to say that all the matches we played so far weren’t at our best level and I think we could have played better tonight. I also think the German team taught us a good and valuable lesson tonight, congratulations again.”