Nitra, Slovakia, September 2, 2014. The battle for the first place in Pool I at the finals of the 2014 CEV U20 Volleyball European Championship - Men really heated up at the start of the fourth competition day in Nitra as Italy achieved a hard-fought 3:2 (25-22, 23-25, 22-25, 25-20, 15-13) victory over heavy favorite Russia to provide Sergey Shlyapnikov’s squad with the first loss in the tournament. Both teams now stand at 10 points each, while France is only a point behind after shutting out host Slovakia by 3:0 (25-18, 25-16, 25-11). In what could turn out to be a the last straw for survival, Serbia achieved its first victory in the competition defeating Bulgaria by 3:1 (23-25, 25-21, 28-26, 25-23).
Italy vs. Russia 3:2 (25-22, 23-25, 22-25, 25-20, 15-13)
Russia started very strong and took a 6-1 lead. The Italian players came back after the bad start, pushed with the serves and turned the score to 18-15. Russia regained the lead for 22-20, but Italy collected five points in a row and won by 25-22. This way Russia lost its first set in the tournament. Italy started the second set in great fashion to lead by 8-4 keep it up until 18-15, but Russia turned to 20-18 when captain and setter Pavel Pankov was in the serving area. Russia finally won the second set by 25-23 to tie the match. Italy played bravely against the strong favorite and took a 13-10 lead in the third. Russia pushed harder, leveled the score and won an important break point with a kill block by Ivan Vlasenko to eventually win the third part of this interesting match by 25-22. Italy was really strong and built a 17-9 lead in the fourth set. It had the set under control, won by 25-20 and surprisingly took the match to a tie-breaker. Italy went up to 4-2 after successful block and attack by Alberto Polo. Russia came back from 4-7 to 9-9, but the Italians made two kill blocks and it was 12-9 in their favor again. The excitement continued through the end and the southern European team emerged victorious, closing the set at 15-13.
Andrea Argenta contributed a shining 28 points to Italy’s victory, while Victor Poletaev ended up with 16 points for Russia.
Pavel Pankov, captain of Russia: "It was a weak performance from us. We made a lot of errors and we could not hold the rhythm of the match. We will work hard for tomorrow and we have to beat Bulgaria in our last match in Nitra."
Simone Giannelli, player of Italy: "Today is a very special day. We beat the very strong Russian team and we are happy. We lost to Russia last year in Utrecht at the European Youth Olympic Festival in five sets and we knew that if we will played at our maximum, we could beat them. We were fighting all the match and we are very satisfied. Tomorrow is another day, because France is a very strong team and if we want to win, we must play at perfection."
Sergey Shlyapnikov, head coach of Russia: "We did not play well today. We were not able to stay concentrated throughout the match. My players played badly today. For example Poletaev, who plays in the Russian Superliga, was not able put in more points. We had no leader today, nobody took responsibility..."
Michele Totire, head coach of Italy: "I am proud of my guys. We knew that Russia was very strong, but we played very well, we wanted to win and my players put their hearts into the game. It made the biggest difference today. My guys were fantastic, not only the players on the court, but also those in the corner. If France beats Slovakia, we need one point tomorrow against the French team to go to the semifinals and I hope we will do it. It will be difficult, but we will fight."
Slovakia vs. France 0:3 (18-25, 16-25, 11-25)
Slovakia started without its captain Jan Tarabus who injured his ankle during the game against Russia. France started better, led by 16-8 at the second technical time-out and won the first set by 25-18. The second set was also under the control of France. Its players had good serving, reception and side-out and won the set by 25-16. In the last set the French achieved an even more impressive final score of 25-11 and won the match in straight sets. Tomorrow France will engage in a direct battle with Italy for a spot in the semifinals. Slovakia, which has not won any sets in the tournament so far, has already all chances to travel to Brno for the last stage of the competition.
Jean Patry piled up 16 points for France to top the scorers’ chart of the match. Slovakia’s most prolific player Filip Gavenda scored 14 points.
Peter Ondrovic, player of Slovakia: "We tried everything, but it is very though against such strong opponents. France had very good serving and defense and we were not able to find any weapon against them. We are sad, because we wanted to go to Brno. I want to thank our fans and I hope we will take some points from the last match against Serbia."
Luka Basic, captain of France: "We made the next step to reach our goal. It is important that we have won in three sets and we saved the energy for tomorrow’s very important match against Italy. It will be a difficult opponent, but I hope that we will beat them and we will reach the semifinals."
Miroslav Palgut, head coach of Slovakia: "We made a change in our line-up as we moved Gavenda from the opposite to the wing spiker position. Out attacking potential was better and Gavenda played a solid game, expect for the last set. France pushed us with strong serves. We are out of contention for qualification to Brno, but we want to finish the tournament with good performance against Serbia and I hope that we will take some points."
Jocely Trillon, head coach of France: "We played well today and we took important three points. Tomorrow we will play something like a quarterfinal against Italy and the winner will go to the semifinals. Italy played very well today against Russia. It is a strong team with good organization, good serving and intelligent players. It will be a difficult match. We have a lot of quality to win, but we need to put in our maximum performance. Both teams will be under pressure tomorrow."
Bulgaria vs. Serbia 1:3 (25-23, 21-25, 26-28, 23-25)
The first set of this important Balkan derby was very close. Bulgaria won important points thanks to two kill blocks by Krasimir Georgiev for 23-21 and eventually won by 25-23. The Bulgarian players started better in the second set to lead by 8-3. Serbia turned the score from 10-14 to 15-14, when Boris Busa was in the serving area, and ended up winning by 25-21. In the third set Bulgaria took a 19-16 lead, but wasted this advantage. Then Serbia had two set points at 24-22, but Bulgaria leveled at 24-24. The dramatic ending of the set was completed with an ace by Busa for 28-26 Serbia’s way. Bulgaria was again leading by 19-14 in the fourth set, when opposite Velizar Chernokozhev saw the red card Serbia gained an automatic point. This moment got the young Serbs started and they turned the score to 20-19 to eventually win the set by 25-23, collect the first points in Nitra and keep its chances to qualify for Brno. On the last day in Nitra, Serbia will play against Slovakia and Bulgaria will face Russia.
Milos Nadazdin was the best scorer of the match piling up 16 points for Serbia. Teammate Marko Radosavljevic and Bulgaria’s Velizar Chernokozhev scored 14 each.
Pavel Ivanov, captain of Bulgaria: "We are very sad, because we wanted to win this match. We did not play the way we can and Serbia was better today. We led by 19-14 in fourth set, the reception was good, but we could not gain the next point. We are disappointed."
Stevan Simic, captain of Serbia: "We played better than in the previous three games and finally we won. We have to beat Slovakia tomorrow to go to Brno and our goal is to finish fifth in this championship."
Nikolay Jeliazkov, head coach of Bulgaria: "I think it was too nervous a match because of its importance and we did not see quality volleyball. We did not play with clean heads and that was our problem today. Everything we did was under the pressure – if we lose, we will probably go home and we will be disappointed."
Sinisa Reljic, head coach of Serbia: "This match was the last chance for us to go to the next stage. Finally we played well. We were nervous at the beginning, but after that we started to play our game. We won again against Bulgaria after we beat them by 3:1 in the Balkan Championship semifinal. We have to win out last match against Slovakia if we want to go to Brno. We will have time to prepare, it will be not easy, because Slovakia will want to win for its fans and it will be though."
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