16/05/2015 21:06
Slovenia and Germany to fight for ticket to U21 World Championship after second three-set wins
2015 FIVB U21 Men Volleyball World Championship - European Qualification
Nova Gorica, Slovenia, May 16, 2015. On Sunday the hosts of Slovenia and Germany will be fighting for the highly coveted ticket to make it to this year’s FIVB Volleyball Men’s U21 World Championship which is due to take place later this summer in Tijuana and Mexicali, Mexico. After yesterday’s straight-set victory over Belgium, Germany added another one to their account on Saturday as they swept past 2014 European champions Russia in three sets as well (25-19, 25-19, 25-19). The home heroes of Slovenia continued their triumphal march in Nova Gorica as they also recorded a second consecutive 3:0 victory, this time besting Belgium by 25-20, 25-23, 27-25.
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Germany vs. Russia 3:0 (25-19, 25-19, 25-19)
Though Russia played better than they had done in yesterday’s match with Slovenia, still it was not enough to stop Germany from cruising to a 3:0 victory. The score remained close for most of the opening set where both Germany and Russia conceded some ‘easy’ points on serving errors. However, after the second technical time-out, Germany imposed their rule on the match breaking away to 21:16 and they could hold on to that margin all the way through to the final 25-19. Though Russia performed quite strong in the second set, Germany got a two-point lead early on and they capitalised on this to claim this stanza by 25-19 as well. Russia seemed to lose their motivation in the third set and this way everything went easy for Germany who claimed their second three-set win in the tournament after yet another 25-19.
Germany’s team captain Moritz Reichert said: “This win is very important for us. We did not know what to expect from Russia as we did not know much about their players. I think that in the end it was not that hard to bring this match to a happy end for us.”
Russia’s coach Ruslan Zhbankov said: “My team played better than yesterday, especially in the first and second sets, but still it was not enough to win against Germany. As you can see, my players do not have much experience at this kind of tournaments.”
Belgium vs. Slovenia 0:3 (20-25, 23-25, 25-27)
At the end of a very exciting match where both teams showed a lot of determination and fighting spirit, Slovenia claimed their second win in Nova Gorica besting Belgium in three sets. Slovenia broke away in the score following the second technical time-out of the opening set, moving the charts to 21:18 in their favour and Belgium could only claim two more points before this stanza came to a close. Many great actions were witnessed by the spectators in attendance also in the second set where the teams exchanged the lead back and forth many times before Slovenia’s team spirit made the difference in a close and dramatic ending. Slovenia controlled set 3 right from the go and after cruising to a 21:14 lead, they probably thought they had already seized the night. Belgium used their chance to attempt a comeback and only after a time-out asked by their coach Iztok Ksela the home heroes woke up and brought the match to an end at 27-25.
Belgium’s team captain Sander Depovere said: “I think my team could have played better especially since we made a lot of stupid mistakes in this match. On the other hand, we played better than we did yesterday with Germany and we should not forget that we have a really young team here. I think we still have the right energy left to show our best side in our last match tomorrow with Russia.”
Slovenia’s libero Jan Gasparin said: “This was a very important victory for us. We have done half of our job and we aren’t that tired because we won both of our matches in three sets. We will try to play our best tomorrow with Germany and to get our ticket to the World Championship.”
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