31/05/2015 18:31
Estonia shatter Sweden’s dreams of making EuroVolley finals
2015 CEV Volleyball European Championship - Men
Halmstad, Sweden, May 31, 2015. On Sunday afternoon Estonia qualified for the Final Round of this year’s CEV Volleyball European Championship – Men by scoring a 3:0 win in Halmstad (28-26, 25-22, 25-9) to shatter Sweden’s dreams of joining Europe’s elite for the first time since 1993. Estonia had already claimed a 3:1 victory at home last week and after securing the first two sets of their re-match with the Swedes, they could already celebrate their qualification for the Volleyball highlight of the year that is due to take place in Bulgaria and Italy. Estonia join Italy, France and Croatia in Pool B that will be played at Palavela in Turin, the iconic venue that hosted the figure skating and short track speed skating events of the 2006 Winter Olympics.
The atmosphere in Halmstad was just electrifying especially since Sweden had not been in the position to qualify for the Final Round of the European Championship since two decades already. The Swedish underdogs found considerable support from their fans with the Halmstad Arena reaching full capacity – 2,700 spectators were in attendance – for this final qualification round.
Both teams played aggressively, and similarly to what had happened last week in Tallinn, there was also a clash of titans between Sweden’s opposite Marcus Nilsson (who scored 13 points in the end) and Estonia’s superstar Oliver Venno (who ended the match on 21 points). Estonia’s more balanced roster and Sweden’s reliance on fewer but very skilled players provided the right pre-conditions for an interesting game.
It quickly became obvious that Estonia had learned their lesson from the previous match as they played a really good game and Venno was just outstanding, all the while Nilsson – like the rest of the Swedish players – did not perform at the same level. Estonia played really good defence and took a lot of points with their counterattacks, as they also exploited their physical prowess. After the visitors from Estonia secured the second set the whole team celebrated cheerfully, as they had already claimed their qualification for the Final Round of the European Championship.
“It feels great. The feeling was good, and we found the right chemistry and timing with our setter today, it worked much better than last week in Tallinn,” said Oliver Venno about the game. “We had good energy and now we are going to play the European League first and after that we will focus on the European Championship.”
Sweden’s Marcus Nilsson was naturally not as pleased, the two decade long streak of not making it to the Final Round was not broken today. “We are disappointed. Of course Estonia played better today, but we could not bring the same energy and intensity that we had shown in the previous game.”
The award for the Most Valuable Player of this match was presented to the agile and quick outside spiker Linus Tholse for Sweden and to the dominating Oliver Venno for Estonia.
Click here for more info including detailed stats of the match
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