10/10/2015 00:54
Serbia survive big scare to edge Slovakia in dramatic tie-breaker, Russia cruise to comfortable win to upset 2,000 Finnish fans
2015 CEV Volleyball European Championship - Men
Busto Arsizio, Italy, October 9, 2015. Serbia claimed a marathon match with Slovakia to start proceedings in Pool D of the 2015 men’s EuroVolley at Palayamamay in Busto Arsizio. The bronze medal winners from the 2013 edition and runners-up of this year’s FIVB World League had to fight for five sets (25-22, 22-25, 30-28, 24-26, 15-9) before edging past their young, yet very motivated opponents from Slovakia. Later in the evening reigning Olympic and European champions Russia made their debut in the competition cruising to a fairly comfortable 3:0 win in their match up with Finland (25-20, 25-19, 25-23). Even though the Finns were pushed by some 2,000 fans and they actually performed quite well, Russia’s physical and technical prowess was too much to stand for the ‘Suomis’.
Slovakia vs. Serbia 2:3 (22-25, 25-22, 28-30, 26-24, 9-15)
Slovakia and Serbia made their debut before a crowd of 1,500 fans at Palayamamay in Busto Arsizio. Slovakia was off to a 5:3 lead and continued to set the pace of the game also at the first technical time-out (8:6) as Serbia seemed to struggle to organise their block. Serbia turned the tide and made it 16:14 at the second mandatory break. Aleksandar Atanasijevic smashed it down for an 18:15 lead for Serbia but Slovakia was not ready to give in and Peter Michalovic reduced his side’s deficit to one point (23:22). Serbia responded immediately and Srecko Lisinac contributed set point at 24:22 which was immediately cashed by Atanasijevic (25-22).
Slovakia caught a promising start in the second set (8:5) and Serbia made a few mistakes to pave the way with gold for their opponents (12:9). Nikola Grbic called his players to the side lines but his break did not produce the desired effects. Slovakia were able to keep a two-point lead at the second technical time-out and after the score was briefly levelled at 18 all, Frantisek Ogurcak and team captain Martin Sopko helped Slovakia move to the front again at 21:18. Emanuel Kohut made it 24:21 for Slovakia and Matej Patak finished it off at 25-22.
The third set was a close race up to 9 all before two consecutive blocks by Kohut made it 12:10 for Slovakia. Serbia could not organise their defence and Slovakia made it 16:11 in their favour at the second technical time-out. As Atanasijevic went to serve, he propelled a Serbian comeback with the score being levelled at 17 all. The point for point fight continued all the way through to the final 30-28 for Serbia.
Serbia caught a flying start in the fourth set (6:3) and Atanasijevic scored two amazing spikes in a row to make it 8:4 at the first technical time-out. Slovakia seemed not to be able to keep Serbia’s pace and their gap grew to 11:6. Tomas Krisko helped Slovakia come back into the game as their deficit was reduced to one point at 13:12 but again Serbia broke away with three straight points. The battle continued as the score was tied again at 16 all; Slovakia went to the front at 22:19 and in another exciting, dramatic final rush Matej Patak made it 26-24 to call for the tie-break.
The teams seemed determined to fight through to the end for their first victory in the competition but Serbia had the right edge and a service error by Slovakia finished it all off at 15-9 for the runners-up of the 2015 World League.
Serbia’s Aleksandar Atanasijevic topped the scoring charts with 28 points, while Peter Michalovic recorded 25 for Slovakia in a battle between the two opposite players.
Serbian opposite Aleksandar Atanasijevic said after the match: “Even last year at the World Championship and four years ago at the European Championship we had a difficult start. Today it was important for us to win and we did well fighting till the end. The most important match is the one of tomorrow against Finland, if we win we will be sure to move on to the next round.”
Slovakia’s mentor Alberto Giuliani said: “The character shown by my team in the fourth set surprised everyone and this is particularly important as my players lost focus after a decision made by the referee towards the end of the third set. Many teams would have given up, instead we continued to fight and this demonstrates the character and my team’s desire of doing even better. Even if this match demonstrated what my team is capable of, losing is never a good thing.”
Slovakia captain Martin Sopko said: “After a match like this, it is very difficult to talk because we have to thank the referees for the result of the game. I am very disappointed that matches at this level can be influenced in such way, there was no touch on that block and this you could see also on the giant screen, but the referee decided differently.”
Russia vs. Finland 3:0 (25-20, 25-19, 25-23)
Russia opened their European Championship campaign playing before some 2,000 fans who had travelled all the way from Finland to Busto Arsizio to support their heroes. As their supporters created a great ambiance and coloured the Palayamamay with white and blue, the Finns were able to keep the score tight in the early stages of the opening set (5:5). After the first technical time-out, Russia broke away for the first time at 12:10 but Olli-Pekka Ojansivu helped the Finns storm back and make it 13 all. The score remained tight up to 17:17 before Maxim Mikhailov – who finished the set on a personal tally of 11 points – scored two aces in a row to move the charts up to 22:17 Russia’s way. Finland was no longer able to keep the pace of the defending champions who finished the set at 25-20.
Finland claimed an early 7:6 lead in the second set with excellent serving by Ojansivu; however, Russia bounced back to 14:11 and another great serve, this time by Egor Kliuka, made it 16:12 for the guys of coach Alekno at the second technical time-out. Finnish mentor Tuomas Sammelvuo kept on pushing his players but the perfect mix of strong serves and superb attacks paved the way for Russia’s final 25-19 set win.
Russia jumped to a quick 6:2 lead in the third set but Finland did not surrender and fought back to 6:9. Team captain Antti Siltala reduced the deficit down to two points at 12:14 with some blistering spikes. However, Russia stayed ahead by three at the second technical time-out but at this stage the 2013 gold medal winners seemed to lose momentum and Finland closed in again at 16:18. However, the Finnish efforts were somehow cancelled by great serving contributed by Russia’s team captain Dmitriy Muserskiy (22:16) and even though with Ojansivu Finland shortened their distance to one point at 22:23, Mikhailov had the last word and sealed the 25-23 that finished the game with a 3:0 win for Russia.
Maxim Mikhailov paced Russia with 21 points while Finland’s Olli-Pekka Ojansivu topped all scorers’ charts with 26.
“I am happy with the performance of my team especially since many of the players on the roster are very young,” Russian coach Vladimir Alekno said. “We served very well and this was very important for the result of the game. Now we must focus on the next match.”
Finland’s team captain Antti Siltala: “Today was a pretty good match for us but they served a lot of aces and we need to improve in order not to give too many points away because of this. Otherwise we played a good game, so hopefully we will be do better against Serbia. We started with a good spirit and we will have to improve small technical details for the match coming up tomorrow.”
Finland’s mentor Tuomas Sammelvuo: “We tried our best and we always talked about not giving up in front of a strong team like Russia. We do not have the height or the strength they have and therefore we needed to serve and defend very well. For the next games we will need to do very well even the simplest things.”
For more information on the 2015 CEV Volleyball European Championship - Men visit eurovolley2015.net or click here. In social media, please use the competition’s official hashtag #EuroVolleyM.
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