Sofia, Bulgaria, May 23, 2014. Azerbaijan scored its first victory in 2nd Round Pool D of qualifications for the 2015 CEV Volleyball European Championship – Women. After surprisingly losing to Portugal on Thursday, coach Faig Garayev’s team started Friday’s program at the Hristo Botev volleyball hall in Sofia with a 3:1 (25-14, 30-28, 17-25, 25-21) win over Greece. Yesterday’s winners Bulgaria and Portugal faced each other in the second match and the home favorites achieved another shutdown – 3:0 (25-14, 25-18, 25-21), to stay on top of the current standings.
Azerbaijan vs. Greece 3:1 (25-14, 30-28, 17-25, 25-21)
After 1-5 in the first set Azerbaijan took a time-out, after which began to play better and with some good attacks and blocks made narrowed the gap down to 4-5. The score was tied at 7-7 and after 9-9 the Greeks started making far too many mistakes in both offense and defense to allow their opponents to shoot up to a 25-14 win. The second set was by far the most interesting one. The Azeris took more risk in both serving and attacking. This brought them many points as well as many unforced errors. Greece was the first to reach set point at 24-23, but then it had to save four of those for Azerbaijan before surrendering on the fifth one for the final 28-30. The Greeks’ prolific serving and more efficient spiking in set 3 not only compensated for Azerbaijan’s improved blocking performance, but also secured a convincing 25-17 win. The team from the southeastern corner of Europe regained control in the fourth set. It once again relied on its good reception and improved attacking efforts to take the set by 25-21 and win the match.
Polina Rahimova became the best scorer of the game with 25 points for Azerbaijan. Teammate Natalya Mammadova added 17. Evangelia Chantava with 11 points was Greece’s top scorer in this match.
Faig Garayev, head coach of Azerbaijan: “We played better today and we made fewer mistakes. The result is that we won the match.”
Ioannis Kalmazidis, head coach of Greece: “It was difficult for us, because the level is high, but I am satisfied with our effort today - we won one set. But we will try, we have some young girls and we will do our best.”
Portugal vs. Bulgaria 0:3 (14-25, 18-25, 21-25)
Bulgaria rushed to take control of the scoreboard by taking a 5-0 lead in the first set, following some great action in both defense and offense. Strashimira Filipova contributed some good serves to extend the lead to 12-3. The home team continued to dominate to close the set at a landslide 25-14. Improved spiking in the second set helped Portugal to stay competitive through 17-17, but in the end Bulgaria stormed to the win with an 8-1 run for 25-18. Some good serving by Marta Hurst helped the Portuguese take a 6-1 lead in the third set. With both teams making too many unforced errors, Bulgaria gradually recovered at 12-12. The two teams exchanged a few runs before the score was even again at 20-20. In the end the Lionesses stayed more focused to claim the set by 25-21 and avoid any surprises in this match.
Elitsa Vasileva and captain Strashimira Filipova topped the scorers’ chart of the match with 16 and 15 points, respectively, for Bulgaria. Fabiola Gomes contributed 9 points to Portugal’s tally.
Fernando Luis Sousa, head coach of Portugal: “We tried to play well for the audience and for ourselves. It was good for us to play two lovely sets and I am satisfied with my team. Bulgaria is another level.”
Vladimir Kuzyutkin, head coach of Bulgaria: “Every coach wants to win. Today we won because of simple discipline. We had little time so we do not play well. This was a normal win and I congratulate the girls for it.”
Click here for more details on the 2nd Round of qualifications, including match statistics and photos.