Kocaeli, Turkey, April 9, 2015. Poland completed a perfect run in Pool I of the 2015 CEV U19 Volleyball European Championship – Men routing Serbia in three sets on the last competition day in Kocaeli, thereby finishing the first phase of the tournament with an impeccable record of five wins in as many matches. Italy claimed the second ticket to the semis already after winning two sets of their game with France whilst Russia settled for third place in the Pool following their 3:0 win over rookies Denmark.
The semifinals of the 2015 CEV U19 Volleyball European Championship – Men will feature an all-sports classic between Germany and Italy on Saturday and the clash between the hosts from Turkey and the Polish giants, the only team that finished the preliminary round of #EuroVolleyU19M with a clean record. The eventual winners of the semifinal matches will have the chance to compete for the European crown on Sunday.
Another four teams – those that ended the pool phase in third and fourth place – still have the chance to get a ticket for the FIVB Volleyball Boys’ U19 World Championship in Argentina – the top six from the tournament make it there – and the European Youth Olympic Festival in Tbilisi, Georgia (this applies to the top seven of the final standing). The Czech Republic and Russia will face on Saturday late afternoon, while Bulgaria and Serbia will close the day with another intriguing duel between two neighbours and real Volleyball powers. All games will be broadcast live and for free on LAOLA1.tv
Programme for Saturday, April 11 - All starting times are local (CEST+1)
Semifinals 1-4
Italy vs. Germany (12.00)
Poland vs. Turkey (14.30)
Semifinals 5-8
Russia vs. Czech Republic (17.30)
Serbia vs. Bulgaria (19.30)
You can also follow the Championship on Facebook and Twitter, with the official hashtag to be used for all of your posts and tweets being #EuroVolleyU19M.
Italy vs. France 3:0 (25-22, 25-18, 26-24)
France caught up the lead at the beginning of this match (10-8) but Italy went up to 18-16 after some mistakes by their opponent and eventually won the first set 25-22. The second set started off with a tight fight as both teams were looking out for easy points especially in defence but the French side seemed to be very good at attacking, this way gaining some precious points. However, in the end it was Italy that won the second set by 25-18. The French team took off the third set with a great spike and a block to make it 3:1. The Italian coach requested a timeout as his young players trailed by 8-10. There was a tie at 21-21 and the French side put a huge pressure on the Italians to win the set. But in the end it was Italy again who had the upper hand and finished it off at 26-24 to book their semifinal ticket. Gabriele Di Martino was the best spiker scoring 8 points in 12 attempts with a success rate of 67% whilst French captain Joachim Panou top scored in the match with 17 points.
Mario Barbiero, coach of Italy: “I am very pleased with today’s result as it’s a ticket to the semifinals in Sakarya. Today’s match was very important for us and for the future of my players.”
Gabriele Di Martino, best player of the game: “I am very happy that we have won today; it was an important match to go to Sakarya.”
Poland vs. Serbia 3:0 (25-15, 25-12, 25-17)
David Mehic from Serbia opened the match by scoring the first point and the score remained tight in the early stages of the first set (3-3). Poland hadn’t lost a single match since the start of the tournament and showed it in all aspects of the game so they went up to 16-9 at the second technical timeout (16-9). After the break both coaches changed their squads in different ways to give their reserve players a chance to compete at the #EuroVolleyU19M. Polish Dawid Woch scored with the best average of 67% successful attacks in the first set while Tomasz Polczyk finished it off for his team with an excellent spike (25-15).
Poland started the second set by dominating the scene once again. Serbia entered the first technical timeout with a huge difference of 7 points (1-8). There were no changes in the remainder of the set, Poland controlled the game in all aspects by winning the second set 25-12. Like in the previous chapters Poland took on the control from the beginning of set 3 too and wrapped up the result to 25-17 in the end. It was Poland’s fifth victory in a row by losing only three sets during the whole preliminary round. Tomaz Polczyk was one of the best players of the game scoring 7 points out of 11 attempts with a 64% success rate while Tomasz Fornal topped the charts on 11.
Milan Djuricic, coach of Serbia: “My team looks forward to the matches in Sakarya but it will be a difficult round so everything depends on our performance.”
Sebastian Pawlik, coach of Poland: “We look forward to Sakarya and must win and fight through there whoever our opponents are.”
Denmark vs. Russia 0:3 (19-25, 17-25, 24-26)
After a close start, Russia got control of the operations and cruised to a relatively easy 25-19 set win. The Russians were anchored by Kirill Kletc who scored six points out of 12 attempts in attack. The second set was also controlled by Russia all the way through; the Danes tried to respond playing some fast Volleyball but their opponents showed excellent skills in defence. Once again it was Kirill Kletc to dictate the pace for Russia on the way to the final 25-17 with his effective spikes and blocks. Denmark did not seem too intimated and got to the front in the third set (10:8) but a series of five points by Russia turned the score around and the heirs of the 2013 gold medallists were still up by three points at the second technical time-out. The fans in attendance for the last match of #EuroVolleyU19M in Kocaeli openly supported the Russian boys and even though Denmark’s captain Oscar Mollgaard produced some terrific blocks, Russia eventually finished it off at 26-24 for a 3:0 win.
Danish coach Thomas Bertelsen: “We played good against a big Volleyball nation today but we were having problems at serving which troubled us and we were also confronted with some huge blocks, something we aren’t used to so it was a big task for us. We showed a much better attitude from the second set onwards and put in more energy so it took us a little bit closer to a set win. I’m happy with the guys; they kept on pushing and playing no matter what.”
Danish captain Oscar Mollgaard: “I think that we had a really rough start of the tournament as we didn’t play good enough against France. But if we had played at this same level we showed in the third set today also in the previous matches, I’m sure we would have edged France and our chances with Serbia would have stood at 50%, so we would now finish the tournament with at least one victory.”
Russia coach Mikhail Nikolaev: “I think our job here wasn’t completed as we didn’t qualify for the semifinals 1-4 but we will play the next matches to win.”
Petr Golovin, Russian captain: “We couldn’t give 100% of ourselves in the matches we lost here in Kocaeli but we are determined to win the matches that will follow this weekend in Sakarya.”
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