19/07/2015 00:07
Slovenia claim home derby with Croatia to celebrate third straight win
2015 CEV Volleyball European League - Men
Maribor, Slovenia, July 18, 2015. Slovenia extended their winning streak in Pool B of the 2015 CEV Volleyball European League – Men to three consecutive matches following up last weekend’s away wins in Turkey with a 3:0 home victory in the much anticipated ‘derby’ with their neighbours from Croatia (25-22, 25-19, 25-21).
The hosts of Slovenia started the match with two consecutive points on Alen Pajenk’s serve, but the Croatians quickly answered back with a block and a spike. Quite many mistakes on both sides of the net, including three in a row for Slovenia, were the reason why either team could step up to a convincing lead until the first technical time-out where the home heroes were up by two points. After the break, the group around legendary star player Andrea Giani moved into 11:7 and 13:7 leads and had a six-point advantage at the second technical time-out. Croatian mentor Igor Simuncic took his second time-out and the Croatians recovered with three consecutive points to 19:16, helped also by two great serves stamped by Mario Mocic. The visitors reduced their gap down to two points again at 23:21 while Ivan Raic was serving. However, Danijel Koncilja closed the first set with a great block at 25-22 Slovenia’s way.
The course of the match didn’t change in the second set with the Slovenians leading practically from start to end. The home team eventually edged ahead after the first technical time-out by scoring three in a row and making it 10:7 in their favour. The Croatians stepped up their efforts and closed the gap on at 15:14, but Slovenia established total control of the game during the second half of the set, getting to a 21:15 lead. Raic and Fran Peterlin kept alive the Croatian hopes as they melted the Slovenian lead down to only two points at 21:19. Giani’s players, however, got back their focus and managed to score two points in a row for the 23:19. This time around Klemen Cebulj and Alen Sket finished the set with two successful attacks for the home side (25-19).
The Slovenians started well also in the third set leading by 3:1, but then the Croatians moved ahead to 3:4. Mitja Gasparini, Alen Sket and Danijel Koncilja paced the home side with their attacks and blocks, and after the first technical time-out Croatia didn’t manage to stay close on the scoreboard any more. The Slovenians went up 15:11 with a great defence of their libero Jani Kovacic and smart attacking by Cebulj. After the second technical break Giani offered the opportunity to Jan Klobucar and also to the youngest player on the roster, Toncek Stern, to join the actions. After these substitutions the Croatians came back into the match for a moment, again on Raic’s serve, but the Slovenian mentor took a smart time-out to help his players score the last two points. One of them was claimed by Klobucar who this way also recorded his first point in this year’s European League.
Alen Pajenk, Slovenia’s player, said: “The Croatians played with a slightly different team than we expected, which was a little surprise for us. We needed some time to adjust our tactics and made some unforced errors. Nevertheless I think our win wasn’t threatened in any moment of the match.”
Igor Simuncic, Croatia’s mentor: “Unfortunately we have some health issues in our team, so we couldn’t play with our best players today. Slovenia has a good team, with tall and physically strong players and our only possibility was to serve really well. Sadly we made too many mistakes in this fundamental and let the Slovenians gain a four or five-point lead in every set. After that it wasn’t that difficult for them to win every set and with this the match as well.”
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