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France vs Turkey 3:0 (25-23, 25-19, 25-16)

The efficiency in block and serve and a successful attacking system enabled France to beat Turkey in three sets in the opening match of the day in Pool A. Both teams aimed at achieving the victory so to challenge Poland’s leadership of the pool and to confirm the ticket to quarterfinals; however, Les Bleus presented a higher level of performance thus making a step forward in their intentions to shine in the competition.

Aware of the relevance of the result, and despite the early hours, the French and Turkish sides stated their purpose to go straight for the win with an electric start of the match. The tie was permanent throughout the first period and the differences were kept to a minimum. Only the French players’ punch decided the close contest in a tight end of the set. A sensational block by France’s Trévor Clevenot gave Les Bleus the first period 25-23.

As the match evolved, France’s supremacy in the game became more and more patent. Turkey struggled to keep their rivals’ pace and barely managed to maintain equality through the attacks killed by Ufuk Minici and Mustafa Koç. In the second set, efficiency on serves by the French players made the difference and their late lead finally was confirmed with the 25-19 in the scoreboard.

With 2:0, the Turkish poise started to vanish. The squad could not keep up with the French demonstration of power on the court, and their gap grew progressively until it became too big to recover. A sensational half court spike after a powerful serve by the French squad placed the final 25-16, thus confirming Les Bleus' superiority in the game and France’s qualification for the quarterfinals.   



“It was a very important victory for us. I am satisfied with the way we played, we served very good and we are very happy. It was important to earn the qualification for the next round like this. Now we will see what happens in the other pool,” declared the coach of France, Marc Francastel.

“There is not much to say. It was too much tension for us and we made too many mistakes. When you play at this level with this number of mistakes, you cannot have options to win. We lost just for this. Our next match is against Azerbaijan and we have to win it. I have to speak with my team now to analyse what happened. There’s only one word: if you make mistakes you cannot win,” said the coach of Turkey, Alper Hamurcu.

Serbia vs Finland 3:0 (25-16, 28-26, 25-20)

Serbia settled things in Pool A today. After downing Finland in straight sets, the four teams from Pool A for the quarterfinals are ready. Now it is only a matter of which position France, Poland, Turkey, and today’s winner, Serbia, will finish at.  

Serbia’s Konstantin Cupkovic has been performing very well in reception at the European Games this far. 80 times has the 28 year old outside spiker received the ball and before today’s match 42.50 percent of those have been perfect receptions. Again today Cupkovic displayed his textbook skills of receiving the ball making it look as the most natural thing in the world adding five more perfect receptions to the equation in the first set which Serbia won 25-16.

With the reception under control, Serbia had time to focus on their attack. Here setter Mihajlo Mitic had another of the tournament’s profiles to work with in the muscular shape of opposite Dusan Petkovic. The 23-year old Serbian captain is, with his 49 spikes before today’s match, the player with the fifth highes number of points in Baku. Petkovic continued his spiking spree against Finland, who suffered in the second set trailing 8:16 at the second technical timeout. Then the Finnish initiated a magnificent comeback equalising the score at 23:23. Close was not enough, as Serbia kept their minds cool and won the set 28-26.

After having rejected Finland’s comeback in the second set, Serbia showed great concentration and kept a high service pressure on the Finns in the third set. Combined with some Finnish mistakes, Serbia held on to a narrow lead without being pushed for real by Finland, who did not really believe in another comeback. Serbia won the set 25-20 and is now ready for the quarterfinals of the European Games tournament leaving Finland and Azerbaijan out in the dark.



“I am very happy with the win and the spot in the quarterfinals. This was a strong team performance. We lost our concentration in the second set and Finland’s started pushing us. I am glad we overcame that and won the set. That was very important for the match. We still need to play better in the coming matches. First, we will play France, and we are ready,” said Dusan Petkovic, captain of Serbia.

"Serbia was better today. We tried to fight, but we couldn't quite cope with them. Our attitude in the game was good, which is positive; we didn't give up, we came back in the second set with some substitutes, who played very well. But in the end, they were just tougher," said the captain of Finland, Toni Kankaanpää.

Poland vs Azerbaijan 3-0 (25-14, 25-13, 25-17)

Poland had had three tiebreak wins this far in the tournament, but tonight’s match against Azerbaijan became a quicker affair for the new team on top of Pool A. 

Poland is the team who had played the most sets in the men’s tournament this far with all of their three matches ending in tiebreaks. With many matches come many points, especially if your name is Artur Szalpuk. Poland’s 20 year old outside spiker had put his signature on 62 points before tonight’s match against Azerbaijan. With, just, another 8 points in this match he helped Poland win the first set 25-14.

Another great contributor to the Polish point score is 25 year old Dawid Konarski who had also scored 62 points before this match sharing the top scorer dignity with Artur Szalpuk. Konarski was the player with the most spiking points in the tournament until today. But tonight, Konarski did not take part in the internal top scorer contest on the Polish side, as Poland’s coach Andrzej Kowal had chosen to rest him for the next matches. Poland did fine even without him winning the second set 25-13.

After having played three tiebreakers in three matches, Poland must have been relieved finding themselves stronger in every aspect of the game against Azerbaijan, knowing that this match would be a much swifter affair than the previous three. For the first time in the tournament Poland won a match in less than two hours, as the third set ended 25-17 after 25 minutes. Poland is now on top of Pool A with four victories in as many matches.



“We are very happy that we have our first 3-0 win of the tournament. We were able to realise our game plan tonight with good service and blocking. The most important is that the team wins, not who scores the points. Now we strive to win against France in the last of our pool matches. We want to finish in first position so we will have the best position for the quarterfinals,” said Polish player Artur Szalpuk.

“It is not nice suffering another defeat on your home ground. But I am grateful for the many spectators who have been here in Crystal Hall to support the team even though we have not given them the results they were hoping for. We have a young team, and every match gives them valuable experience for the future,” said the mentor of Azerbaijan, Bülent Karslioglu.