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Poland vs Slovakia 3:0 (25-16, 25-23, 25-19)

The team of Poland became the first team to reach the semifinals of the men’s competition of the first ever European Games. The 2014 FIVB World Championship gold medallists upset Slovakia in a three-setter exhibition of offensive efficiency, thus claiming their sixth victory in as many matches.

The Polish team soon took a direct route to victory, as Andrzej Kowal’s men imposed an ironclad control of the game through a frantic offensive variety established by setter Pawel Woicki. Slovakia could not find grounds to settle on the court, and were unable to stop the diverse attacking resources used by their rivals; as a consequence, Poland closed the convincing first set with a skillful half court spike by Grzegorz Kosok 25-16.

Slovakia tried to offer alternatives to their rivals’ balance of successful attacks and blocks, and presented opposition in the second set through Peter Mlynarcik’s spikes. However, as the period evolved, Poland’s offensive actions, led by Artur Szalpuk, found a clearer path to the other side of the court, thus creating a difference in the scoreboard that the Slovaks were ultimately unable to recover. Miroslav Palgut’s men managed to save three set balls, but Poland sealed the period 25-23.

The Slovakian players tried to fight in order to contain the avalanche of clockwork serves, spikes and blocks being presented by their foolproof rivals, but Poland continued their excellent performance and confirmed once more their status as the only undefeated team of the tournament with a convincing victory. A sensational block wrapped up the set up 25-19 and the match for Poland, grating the ticket to the semi-finals to one of the main favourites of the competition.   



“It might have looked easy from the outside, as we won 3:0. But it was definitely not an easy match. I am proud of the way we worked together as a team. We keep getting more and more confident as we keep winning. And we have to be better in each match if we want to reach the final and win gold. The team feels good – both physically and mentally. It does not matter who we will play in the semifinal. We have to beat all teams if we want to get the gold medal,” said Polish star Dawid Konarski.

“Poland was too strong. The problem was that we had chances in the first set, we had some break points, but we didn’t take them. After that, Poland played very well and they were stronger than us. Poland was simply better. I am satisfied with our participation in the tournament. We won against teams like Italy or Belgium and I think that our pool was stronger because we didn’t have weaker teams like in the other pool. If we had won one or two sets today, I would have been more satisfied,” said the coach of Slovakia, Miroslav Palgut.

Turkey vs Bulgaria 1:3 (26-24,  19-25, 17-25,  20-25)

Bulgaria will fight for the medals of the European Games after producing a remarkable comeback to defeat Turkey in the disputed second quarterfinal of the men’s competition. The Bulgarian squad showed the ability to react and managed to overcome an initial set win for the Turkish side to end up winning the clash 3:1.

The spikes by Todor Aleksiev on the Bulgarian side and the excellent direction by Selçuk Keskin for the Turkish squad constituted the main arguments of the two teams in the quest for victory in the onset of the match. A better balance on their errors record allowed Turkey to take a late lead in the first set, as Bulgaria struggled to turn the tables, and even saved two set balls. An astute feint pass by Turkish setter Selçuk Keskin represented the final 26-24 and a successful first step in the Turkish intentions to win the clash. 

Nonetheless, these wishes of the Turkish side would be firmly stopped since Bulgaria produced an oustanding comeback after this initial period. Nikolay Jeliazkov’s men reacted by taking control of the game through their successful serves. The powerful and implacable blows coming from the Bulgarian serving line granted Bulgaria a clear predominance in the period. Little could Turkey do to avoid the 1:1, as Bulgaria convincingly finished the set with a spike by Velizar Chernokozhev (25-19).

The Bulgarian serving festival persisted, and Turkey found increasing problems to construct their game and to avoid their rivals’ shockproof blocks. Todor Aleksiev and Nikolay Nikolov’s contribution in attack helped Bulgaria to acquire the compelling advantage that the 2009 CEV European Championship bronze medallists clearly extended by the end of the set (25-17).

Despite the Turkish attempts, Bulgaria maintained their excellence in block and attack (49% of excellent offensive actions, 16 blocks in the game) so to claim an early lead in the fourth period. Todor Aleksiev’s fierce spikes confirmed the Bulgarian preeminence in the period and his powerful actions paved the way for Bulgaria to complete their impressive reaction (25-20). Bulgaria qualifies for semifinals and will clash with Poland for a spot in the title-deciding match. 



“The most important thing for us is that we won the match. Now we continue in the tournament and we are in the final four. We started under pressure in the first set and we made a lot of mistakes. After that, we started thinking about playing our volleyball, we made fewer mistakes and I think that this was the key. We started to play better and better. We wanted this victory so much, and we wanted to continue in the tournament. For us it was very important to win,” said the coach of Bulgaria, Nikolay Jeliazkov.

“We played really well in the beginning, when our tactics worked just fine. But in the second set, Bulgaria began to serve much better and put us under pressure. I tried to change our rotation, but we kept making simple mistakes and could not put up enough resistance. We never gave up and never stopped fighting. I need to point this out as a great aspect for this young team. In general, I am satisfied with our performance in the tournament, but our level had a lot of fluctuations with many ups and downs. In the future we need to play at a more steady level,” said the coach of Turkey, Alper Hamurcu. 

Serbia vs Germany 0-3 (24-26, 24-26, 17-25)

Germany is ready for the next step of the medal race in the inaugural European Games after they secured their ticket to the semifinals in a display of rock solid blocking against Serbia.

On paper, Germany were clear favourites to win the third quarterfinal of the day against Serbia. The Germans had won their Pool B, while Serbia finished four in Pool A. Though, Serbia did a splendid job in making the predictions shame in the first set. The right arm of outside spiker Konstantin Cupkovic kept hammering points to the Serbian score (8:4) giving the Balkan side two set points at 24:22. Germany survived both, before some waterproof blocking by first Christian Fromm and then captain Jochen Schöps turned the set around (26-24 for Germany).

With temperatures around 40 degrees in Baku today the air-condition in Crystal Hall had been turned up a notch, but no matter how hard it tried to cool down the packed arena, the action was heating up on the court in the second set. The two teams were even all the way in the set until Germany got their first set point at 24:23 but missed it. Serbia’s Dusan Petkovic service was out and then Christian Fromm had the chance to close the set. Fromm made his characteristic service drill, where he turns the ball three times in his hands, before he gave it a high lift and then transformed the Mikasa into a thunder ball of lightning acing the second set home to Germany (26-24).

Whether it was the fact that Germany’s Denys Kaliberda turned 25 today or the fact that there is exactly six months till Christmas Evening, Serbia was more generous in their blocking and let the German spikes pass more easily in the third set. Germany accepted the gifts that Serbia gave them and had a 16:8 lead at the second technical timeout. Germany's blocking game on the other hand had been excellent in the match (15 kill blocks), and coach Vital Heynen’s troops took the third set home 25-17.  



“The first two sets were very even. We did not play perfect, long from actually. We are playing fine, but did not take the chances when they appeared to close the rallies. I am very happy with our fifth win in a row, I would not say that the other teams should be scared of us, but I am sure they will have the right respect the same way we respect their qualities. The win was a good birthday present for me. We have had some cake, but we save the beers for after the tournament,” said birthday boy Denys Kaliberda of Germany.

“I think we played a very good match against a team that is one of the favourites to win the gold medal. We played very well in the first two sets, but at the end [of each set ] we saw the quality of the German team. They are more experienced than us, and I am sure that they are going to play the final match and that they have a big chance to win. We didn't make a lot of mistakes in the first two sets, they did everything: a good block, good attack, good serve... that's the quality of the German team,” declared the coach of Serbia, Sinisa Reljic.

France vs. Russia 0:3 (23-25, 23-25, 22-25)

The young Bleus had the difficult task to try to stop Russia’s march towards the semis in the last match of the day at Crystal Hall and to do so they had to repeat what their colleagues from Bulgaria had done in pool play where the Balkan side had turned into the only team capable of upsetting Dmitry Kovalev & Co. France played with a lot of courage and they made it fairly difficult for their opponents in each one of the three sets they played but in the end had to accept a 0:3 loss thereby finishing the tournament in fifth place.

The ‘multi-cultural’ French side including as many as three players from Polynesia caught a flying start (5:2) while playing under the eyes of France’s Volleyball icon Victoria Ravva, who had showed up for the first time at Crystal Hall while staying in Baku to report on the European Games for l’Equipe 21. Russia’s mentor Sergey Shlyapnikov had a wide array of physically imposing players to choose from and he started the match with a line up including the country’s rising star Victor Poletaev. The left-handed opposite immediately left his mark on the match as his serve reached a speed of 116 km/h to flip the charts around already by the first technical time-out (8:7).
Another two ‘bombs’ by Poletaev widened Russia’s lead to 10:7 before France’s coach Marc Francastel tried to get his side back on track with some substitutions and he got the desired effect with his guys levelling the score at 13 all. By the second technical break Poletaev had already scored as many as eight points but it was France in the lead (16:15) and the Bleus resumed the actions with an ace by their setter Toafa Takaniko. Russia edged ahead towards the end of the set (20:18) exploiting their towering block and the class of their setter and captain Kovalev before France responded with three points in a row to flip the charts yet again. Russia, however, did not tremble and with another positive series brought the set to an end at 25-23 in their favour.

In a remake of the previous set, France came out with all guns blazing also in the second stanza (5:3) but Russia eventually levelled the count at 6 all. The Bleus looked determined to make Russia work hard in their attempt to claim a spot in the semis of the first ever European Games and both teams were regularly turning to their serve as a way to claim some ‘easy’ points. An incredibly close race with many exciting rallies continued all the way through to the ‘money time’ and it was Dmitry Kovalev to have the last word in this set to prompt a 2:0 lead for Russia in the match (25-23).

The story followed a different pattern in set 3 with Russia being quick off the blocks (5:3) before Egor Kliuka got a standing ovation from the fans as he caught the Mikasa well beyond the advertising boards to get the rally then finished by his captain and setter Kovalev. Though a French comeback was not to be ruled out, at this stage (8:6) Russia seemed to be well on route to the semis where they would go for a remake of the opening match they played in the tournament with Germany, yet another ‘hot candidate’ for the gold medal. But France did not want to bury their hatchet yet and with three straight points flipped the charts around to move to the front (9:8). Russia got another break with Poletaev standing behind the service line and their block caused nightmares to the French spikers as the young ‘heirs’ of the 2012 Olympic champions broke away after the second technical time-out and avenged a late comeback of their opponents to eventually seal their straight-set win and shape up a much anticipated semi-final with Germany. 



France’s outside spiker Guillaume Quesque said: “It is difficult for us to accept this loss in three sets because the final result does not reflect the quality and level of our performance. We played a good match and we found the right system to stand the challenge. Russia played great; I think we should improve on our block and defence system since we lacked in this fundamental in two, three actions per set and this eventually decided the outcome of the match. It’s always little things that matter and that’s why we are out of the tournament now. In general I think for such young group we played a good tournament and we were close to finish first in the group and we had an unlucky draw for the quarter-finals. I am disappointed right now but still happy with our overall performance here in Baku.”

“This game was a very tough one. All the sets were very tight. France were defending, serving and attacking well, so the final score doesn’t reflect the whole game. There was a serious fight between the two teams. The next match is against Germany; we beat them in the first match of the tournament but now it will be another story. I think it’s going to be a very different and a very interesting game,” said the captain of Russia, Dmitry Kovalev.