Baku, Azerbaijan, July 5, 2014.  Poland finished its inaugural 2014 CEV Volleyball European League - Men campaign on a high note defeating home side Azerbaijan in straight sets by 3:0 (25-16, 25-14, 25-21) in the second match between the two sides in Baku on the last weekend of competition in Pool A.

This way Poland caught up with second-placed Romania with 13 points each, but stays in third position in the current standings on fewer victories.  Fourth-placed Greece, on the other hand, still has a shot at a spot in the semifinals, but needs at least two points from this weekend’s double-header at Montenegro.

Azerbaijan’s Yevgeniy Kovalenko scored the first point of the match, but this was the last time the home team was in the lead through the rest of the first two sets.  With better attacking and fewer mistakes, Poland dominated the first set to win it by 25-16 with Vadim Kutukov committing an attacking mistake for the opponent’s closing point.  In the second set Poland stepped up its serving and blocking efforts to achieve an even more impressive 25-14.  The third set was quite different.  The visiting team lost some precision, especially in serving and reception, which allowed Azerbaijan to stay in control of the scoreboard through the most part of the set.  However, after 18-14, Poland scored an amazing series of seven consecutive points to turn things around for 21-18 and follow up through 25-21 to win the set and the game.

Bartolomiej Boladz was the best scorer of the match with 24 points for Poland, followed by teammate Michal Filip with 11.  Azerbaijan’s best scorer Dmitriy Obodnikov finished with 9 points.

Leonardo Silie Tabares, head coach of Azerbaijan:  “Our players played badly in serving, blocking and reception.  Today we could have won, but Vugar Bayramov, Tural Hasanli, Parviz Samadov and Emil Abdullayev played very badly. They did not show a good game.”

Andrzej Kowal, head coach of Poland:  “Our team showed a good game.  There is not one player who was the best.  All our players were the best.”