Thessaloniki, Greece, July 11, 2014. After the league round of the 2014 CEV Volleyball European League - Men was completed this past weekend, the city of Thessaloniki, the second biggest city of Greece, is preparing to host the first leg of the semifinal clash between Greece and Slovenia.
Greece is playing again in the semifinals or the CEV European League after eight years and although Sotirios Drikos and Mitar Tzourits, head coach and captain of the local team, respectively, said that Slovenia is the favorite to win the competition, they promised to fight for a spot in the final.
On the other hand, Slovenia’s mentor Luka Slabe and his captain Tine Urnaut admitted that their goal is to win the competition but both are expecting two tough matches against a young and dangerous Greek team.
Luka Slabe, head coach of Slovenia: “Thank you for having us here, in Greece. Our expectations are very high. We won our pool, but that does not matter anymore. Now it comes down to who wins and who dies. It is a tough challenge ahead of us and we want to go all the way, we want to be successful in this competition, but there are still a few obstacles ahead of us. For sure, the first one is Greece. It is going to be a tough match-up, a tough battle and I really hope we get the best out of it and move on. But, as I said, they have some really good volleyball players. Mitar is one of them, but not the only one. It is not going to be easy for our team.”
Tine Urnaut, captain of Slovenia: “We are very happy for our qualification to the semifinals, especially because we topped the charts in our pool. We achieved our first goal and now we came here to Greece having a new one: to proceed to the final. We are expecting two tough matches. I know Greece is a very strong team, playing modern and really fast volleyball with a fighting spirit. Both matches are a big challenge for our team and I hope we will perform well. As you already know, there is also a personal ‘fight’ between me and my friend Mitar. He is always getting free dinners from me and I hope that the time has come for him to pay.”
Sotirios Drikos, head coach of Greece: “First of all I would like to welcome the Slovenian team to our country and especially to Thessaloniki. I believe we will play two tough matches and we will have a fight between the next generations of European volleyball because both teams have young and talented players. We know Slovenia’s primary goal since the beginning of the tournament has been to win the competition and qualify to the next edition of the FIVB World League. From our side we are satisfied with the qualification to the semifinals, we are happy having ahead of us two very strong matches and we will try to be ready in tactical manners and if there is a chance for us we will grab it. In such ‘do-or-die’ matches it is very difficult to make estimations for the results.”
Mitar Tzourits, captain of Greece: “I would like to welcome the Slovenian team here, in Thessaloniki. After eight years we managed to participate in the semifinals of the European League. We have a really young team and for us it is very important that we are among the four best teams of the competition. We know Slovenia is a very good team. It has more experienced players than us, but we will do our best. Regarding to what Tine said about our personal fight, I will not say anything before the match.”
The first match is scheduled for tomorrow, Saturday, July 12, at 19:00 in Thessaloniki, and the return leg will be played in Maribor on Wednesday, July 16, at 20:00 local time. Both games are scheduled for live streaming on LAOLA1.tv.
Click here for more details.