Castelo da Maia, Portugal, April 27, 2014. Pool E in Portugal is one in which all four teams’ chances to move beyond the 2nd Round of qualification for 2014 CEV U20 Volleyball European Championship - Men are still alive before the third and final day of competition Sunday.
Even the team of Sweden, which lost twice so far, may hope to reach the 3rd place and possibly make it to the next qualification round as the best third-placed teams from all the pools. “Today is a new day and a new opportunity”, believes heads coach Goran Persson. Sweden that will play against the mighty France in the first match on Sunday afternoon. “We will play without pressure and try to leave a good impression in Maia and their enthusiastic volleyball fans,” Person adds.
Despite having two victories already, France needs one more against Sweden to seal its first place in the final standings. Head coach Jocelyn Trillon already said that he wants the players to relax and play what they know. “Since we want to win,” he explains.
Survival is at stake in the last match on the schedule, between Belgium and hosts Portugal. Depending on the result of the previous match, the two team will embark on a head-to-head battle for the second and possibly even the first place in the pool.
Despite the fact that the Belgians came out victorious from the match against Sweden, head coach Joel Banks shows some caution: “We played better, but today it will be a difficult match, since Portugal fights hard for its points and is driven by the spectators. It will be a real final.”
Bernardo Martins, the Portuguese captain, highlights: “We will play with no pressure, but we know that we can win against Belgium. It has a strong team, but we believe that we have value to fight equally. As always, we will count on the audience’s support which has been phenomenal”.
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