Sakarya, Turkey, April 4, 2015. The waiting has finally come to an end. The first day of the 2015 CEV U19 Volleyball European Championship - Men in Sakarya brought out some thrilling and close matches, with the national teams from the Czech Republic, Turkey and Spain all claiming their maiden victories in the competition.

You will also be able to follow the Championship on Facebook and Twitter, with the official hashtag to be used for all of your posts and tweets being #EuroVolleyU19M.

All starting times are local (CEST+1).

Czech Republic vs. Germany 3:1 (25-21, 28-26, 25-27, 25-22)

Both teams started out in a nervous way and made a lot of mistakes in service at the beginning of the first match of #EuroVolleyU19M. The Czech Republic took the lead at the first technical timeout due to German faults and some misunderstandings in attack (8-5). Things didn't change after the break, additional attack faults extended the lead of the eastern Europeans which acted with a strong defence (12-6) and well-working block system. German coach Matus Kalny tried to bring his guys back on track and changed setter and opposite. It was not enough to turn the score, Donovan Dzavoronok (CZE) who scored 8 times in the first set including an amazing attack quote (78%) closed it at 25-22 by converting the third set ball. The Czech Republic took the advantage in the beginning of the second set too (4-2), but German middle blocker Tobias Krick found his form in the right time and turned the score with two huge blocks to 7-6. After that the game followed the same course as in the opening set. The Czech Republic presented themselves more confident and it seemed that they were on the way to winning the second chapter too (16-12). At the score of 23-20 for the Czech Republic it was Maximilian Auste who prevented his team from a clear loss. His powerful attacks broke through the Czech block once and then again and tied the game at 23-23. A thrilling final phase was decided by Matej Smidl with the Czechs going up to 2:0 (28-26). The third set was exactly played like the second, only the end made the difference, when Germany defended two match balls and won it at 27-25.

The spectators from Germany and the Czech Republic saw a dominating team from Czech Republic in the fourth set. Germany showed lack of quality in defence and many problems in attack again. So the team of coach Jiri Zach wrapped up the result to 8-4 and 24-20 and closed the game with an unusual shot from Donovan Dzavoronok. Best scorer of the game was Matej Smidl who scored 26 times, while Maximilian Auste from Germany reached 23 points in his first game at the European Championship.

Matus Kalny, coach of Germany: “We had many problems in the beginning of each set. It was not a bad performance, but it was also not enough to win this game. My team acted very nervous and had problems to make the first step in the game, while the Czech Republic ran away and troubled our tactic every time.”

Stefan Thiel, captain of Germany: “I think we made a good fight, but there is a lot of potential we have not used against them. We will try everything tomorrow to gain our first victory.”

Jiri Zach, coach of Czech Republic: “We played a hard match. All teams know each other very well. We knew that the match will be long and hard. We have disciplined players and they played very good. Now we will start to think about the game against Spain.“

Kristian Cervinka, captain of Czech Republic: “We are very happy that we reached the victory and played very good in the first half of all sets. It was the first match, we were very nervous, so I am satisfied with our start. We want to win all the matches in this pool.”

Turkey vs. Bulgaria 3:2 (25-19, 25-19, 15-25, 18-25, 15-12)

In the second game of the preliminary round in Sakarya the hosts from Turkey celebrated a hard earned five-set victory versus Bulgaria. The visitors were on the better side from the beginning of the set and lead by 8-6 at the first technical timeout. It would be their last point for a long time. The Turkish team created a huge pressure in attack and moved the score to 13-9 after a 7-1 run. In the following time Turkey dominated the game totally. Adis Lagumdzija and Abdullah Cam played in a good mode and contributed 10 points to the final result at 25-19 in the first set. 400 spectators saw a second set which was nearly running like the first chapter. Turkey continued to put the Bulgarian defence in trouble and break their attackers. It was another crushing win as Turkey raised the score from 16-12 to 25-19 and made a huge step forwards to their first points at #EurovolleyU19. At this time Bulgaria finally woke up and fought themselves bravely back into the game. Both sets which followed shined in the light of Bulgaria, so the team from coach Dragan Ivanov won the third set 25-15, Nikolay Manchev blocked an attack from Turkey in the fourth set and ended it at 25-18.

The Turkish team caught the better start in the decider and took on a three point advantage (5-2). Muzaffer Yönet, captain of Turkey, had a large share to the comeback as an emotional leader and setter who made the right decisions at the right time. His ace in the end of the fifth set (11-8) almost destroyed the strength and motivation of Bulgaria, Burak Cevik made the last point and cared for a good start for Turkey in the European Championship. Abdullah Cam from Turkey contributed 18 points to the victory. On the other side Stefan Ivanov scored 18 times for Bulgaria.

Erdogan Salih Tavaci, coach of Turkey: “It was a hard but good win. We played very well during the first two sets. But after one of our player’s injury, we struggled. We lost the third and fourth sets but did not give up and made a good comeback in the tie break. Now we are thinking only about the game tomorrow.”

Muzaffer Yönet, captain of Turkey: “We were great at the beginning of the match. After the second set we stopped as a team and Bulgaria won two sets in a row. But we managed to win. We played good in the tie-break. We aim to defeat Romania tomorrow and reach the finals day by day.”

Dragan Ivanov, coach of Bulgaria: “Congratulations to the Turkish team, they played a very good game. My team had a difficult start, but after the second set we found our game and started a comeback. We want to play better in the next games to achieve the victories we need.”

Radoslav Parapunov, captain of Bulgaria: “We made too many mistakes in the first and second set. Turkey played very well, but I think there was a chance to win this game too.”

Spain vs. Romania 3:1 (20-25, 25-18, 25-23, 26-24)

Two teams with the mission of achieving an excellent start on the first day of #EurovolleyU19 battled each other on the last game in Pool II in Sakarya. Spain and Romania started on an equal level in their tournament debut, but Romania took the advantage first and won the beginner 25-20. Spain tried to react and increased their performance especially in attack. Francisco Iribarne scored time and again to put his team in the position for winning two sets in a row with 25-18 and 25-23. In the fourth set, Romania coach Razvan Parpala made some substitutions and searching for the right answer, but the well working block-defence system (14 blocks) helped Spain to achieve an excellent start in Sakarya (26-24).

Benjamin Vicedo, coach of Spain: “After the first set we found our concentration. We knew them really good and tried to increase our performance in block. It´s always hard to play a first match in such an important tournament but we will continue our actions tomorrow. It was a good start.”

Sergi Rene Giralt, captain of Spain: “We have an incredible team. Every player is fighting until the last ball. We have to play more effective if we want to go to the next round.”  

Razvan Parpala, coach of Romania: “It was a tough game and I don´t know what to say. We could win the last points of the third and fourth set but we went down at the end. We will play the same game tomorrow for achieving our first victory.”

Robert Adrian Aciobanitei, captain of Romania: “It was a very close game. We played very bad at the end of the sets. Tomorrow we will try to play better.”

Click here for further information on Final Round of the 2015 CEV U19 Volleyball European Championship – Men