10/07/2015 16:50
Turkey and Slovenia go for much anticipated showdown in Pool B opening weekend
2015 CEV Volleyball European League - Men
Samsun, Turkey, July 10, 2015. Turkey will start its campaign in the 2015 CEV Volleyball European League – Men in front of the home fans with two matches against Slovenia coming up on Saturday and Sunday in Samsun, a city on the north coast of the country.
Belarus, Croatia, Greece and Romania are the remaining teams that alongside Turkey and Slovenia compose Pool B. After six legs of tough games, the eventual winners of each pool plus the second placed team with the best score will join hosts Poland for the Final Four tournament scheduled for August 13-14 in Walbrzych.
A press conference was held in Samsun on Friday, before the first clash starring Turkey and Slovenia.
CEV Supervisor Tomas Singer of Slovakia, the Manager of the Turkish Volleyball Federation’s Corporate Communication and Marketing Department, Mr Sezgin Eren and Turkey’s Team Manager Mr Muhammet Görken attended the media meeting together with the captains and coaches of Turkey and Slovenia.
Mr Sezgin Eren, who delivered the opening speech, said that it is a pleasure to welcome Slovenia and the CEV Supervisor and international referees to the city of Samsun and stressed that the match coming up on Sunday will be broadcast live on ASpor, adding that he very much looks forward to hosting a great event.
CEV Supervisor Tomas Singer said he is confident that very competitive and entertaining matches will be taking place over the weekend in Samsun and wished both teams the best of luck while thanking the Turkish Volleyball Federation for hosting the first leg of the competition.
Turkey’s Team Manager Muhammet Görken said: “The Turkish men’s national team have had a good preparation phase and the matches coming up this weekend will be extremely competitive as Slovenia is a strong team to play with.”
Slovenia’s coach Andrea Giani said: “I am happy to be here in Turkey and Turkey is a tough to team to play against, but I look forward to the games and to enjoying a great atmosphere at the local sports hall here in Samsun,” before team captain Tine Urnaut added: “It’s a pleasure to be here and I can predict that there will be a tough battle between these two teams.”
Turkey’s coach Emanuele Zanini stated that Slovenia is one of the toughest teams in the group and added: “We had to split our team into two groups, one went to Azerbaijan to play at the Baku 2015 European Games and the other one joined actions in the FIVB Volleyball World League. These two groups have come together now for the European League so I’m quite excited to see how we will perform as a whole over the weekend.”
Turkey’s captain Caner Peksen concluded: “We have had three preparation matches so far and we were able to see where our weaknesses are. We have worked hard on our weaknesses to minimise them but Slovenia is a strong team, we will now play against them and see how it goes.”
Turkey and Slovenia will face each other on Saturday and Sunday, July 11 and 12, with both matches starting at 5pm local time.
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