19/04/2013 23:00
Victory is on everybody’s mind as countdown to the semi finals in Laktaši has begun
2013 CEV Youth Volleyball European Championship - Boys
Laktaši, Bosnia and Herzegovina, April 19, 2013. With only one continental crown available and four teams on the quest to obtain it, the 2013 CEV Youth Volleyball European Championship - Boys is all but four matches away of finding its final honorees. The town of Laktaši already welcomed the teams of Russia and Finland that claimed the top two spots from Pool II in the Serbian capital Belgrade and is now bracing itself for the conclusive battles that will determine the new 2013 European volleyball champion for boys. The teams of Poland, Russia, Belgium and Finland have already secured the right to participate in the 2013 FIVB Youth Volleyball World Championship in Mexico, as well as in the 2013 European Youth Olympic Festival in the Netherlands, and now all they have in mind is to continue to be victorious for continental honors.
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The team of Poland that did not lose a single set in its five Pool I matches will now face a tough challenge from Finland as the semi final encounter between these two teams is scheduled to start at 17:30 CET on Saturday afternoon at the beautiful sports palace in Laktaši. To follow soon after, at 20:00 CET, is the second semi final - Russia vs. Belgium.
The four head coaches obviously had only the victory in mind as they shared some of their thoughts before the semi final matches.
Wieslav Czaja, head coach of Poland: “We expect our team to play as well as it played by now. It will be a great success for us if we manage to win.”
Pertti Honkanen, head coach of Finland: ”Our rival is a very strong team and it will be difficult to win. However, we will try to beat them and show how well we can play.“
Alexander Karikov, head coach of Russia: ”We expect victory. This championship is very important to us because here we can easily see what our mistakes are and what we should improve. We are here to form very good players and we definitely needed this experience. Of course, the more we play, the better we become, and that is why the next game is so important.“
Steven Vanmedegael, head coach of Belgium: “It will be very hard to play against Russia. They have tall players and they are in a very good physical shape. Expectations are high. We have prepared weapons that we will try to use and, of course, we will do our best to win this match.”
All semi final and classification matches will be streamed live on LAOLA1.tv here.
Click here for more information, including schedule, results, statistics and standings.
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