Varna, Bulgaria, September 2, 2016.  Serbia squeezed out a 3-2 (21-25, 25-15, 25-18, 13-25, 15-13) victory in the rollercoaster five-setter that opened the race in Pool II of the 2016 CEV U20 Volleyball European Championship - Men's finals on Friday in Bulgaria’s third largest city. Next, Russia showed their class with a 3-0 (25-13, 25-19, 25-16) shutout of their neighbours from Belarus. In the last match of the day in Varna, Italy proved better than the Czech Republic and mastered a 3-1 (25-22, 20-25, 25-21, 25-20) win.


Turkey vs. Serbia 2-3 (25-21, 15-25, 18-25, 25-13, 13-15)

Serbia started the match better and managed to take a 6-3 lead in the beginning, but through the end of the first set Turkey demonstrated a real Volleyball mastery with four aces, four kill blocks and great defence in the long rallies and won the set by 25-21.

Turkey continued to be in control in the first minutes of the second set and led by 8-6 at the first technical time-out, but after that Serbia scored four points in a row to take over the lead. The Serbian players dominated with smart float serves and perfect blocking and won by 25-15.

Turkey started really well in the third set and took an 11-6 lead. On the other side of the net Aleksa Polomac showed some great serving and after some errors in the Turkish reception Serbia scored four points in a row for 10-11. With great single block Miran Kujundzic made it 16-15 at the second time-out. Turkey continued to make a lot of unforced errors and Serbia easily closed the set at 25-18.

Things changed again in the fourth set and Turkey took an enormous advantage at 14-5. Serbia made a lot of errors, their game collapsed and Turkey won it at 25-13.

In the beginning of the tie-breaker both teams had a good side-out. The Turkish players managed to stop the Serbian attacks and after two kill blocks took a 9-5 lead, but then made a lot of unforced errors to allow a Serbian comeback and a 15-13 win.

David Mehic was the best scorer of the match with 22 points for Serbia. Adis Lagumdzija was Turkey’s most prolific player with 18.

Adis Lagumdzija, top scorer for Turkey: “We played a lot of games head to head before. We know each other very well. It was a good match, but maybe we did not do enough. Something happened in the tie break and we just collapsed. We started to make too many mistakes and we lost. Aleksa Polomac made us struggle with his good serves and we did not find the best solution at this moment. But tomorrow is a new day with a new game.”

David Mehic, captain of Serbia and top scorer of the match: “This is a very important victory for us. Earlier this summer we lost against Turkey in the final of the Balkan Championship, so now, in my opinion, we took revenge. We have problems with our game but when we play like we can everything is perfect. Surely, this is a great win for us! It is really important to start a competition with a victory, so I am happy. Tomorrow we will play against Italy, who are a strong team, so I expect a really tough match.”

Mehmet Bedenstenloglou, coach of Turkey: “We made good first and fourth sets, but in the end we made too many unforced errors. During the match we had so many ups and downs, but this is normal for these young players to make mistakes. We lost the tie-break despite our 4-point lead at 9-5. It is disappointing, but tomorrow we have a new match, a new opponent and we must think about that.”

Vladimir Vasovic, coach of Serbia: “This is a great, really great victory for us. Turkey are a very, very good team and this is a fantastic moment for us, a great success... We played badly in the first set. After that we showed our real face and went 2-1 up. We had downs in our performance, but in the end we won. We knew them very well. We knew it would be tough and it was, but my players did not give up. They had good and a lot of difficult moments, but they managed to win. It is great and important to start the tournament this way. Tomorrow we have another really tough match against Italy and we will see what happens."

With Dmitry Yakovlev on fire and contributing six points in the first set, Russia made a perfect start and won by 25-13.

After the nervous beginning, the young Belarusians showed an absolutely different face in the second set. Uladzimir Maisiyevich’s players led by 8-6 at the first technical time-out and kept the two-point advantage through the second. After 18-17 Russia’s captain Konstantin Abaev came to the serving line and gave some hard time to Belarus’s reception and a chance for his teammates to make some kill blocks that helped Russia win the second set by 25-19.

Russia dominated during the whole third set. The Russian players had a comfortable six-point lead at the second technical time-out (16-10) and without losing focus extended it to 25-16 in the end.

Dmitry Yakovlev from Russia was the top scorer of the match with 11 points. For Belarus, Kiryl Kubar and Kiryl Kapylou finished with eight points each.

Kiryl Kubar, captain of Belarus: “It was a really tough match against a strong opponent like Russia. We did not manage to show our best and we had a lot of problems in reception. They had good serving and we had difficult moments. Turkey are a good team, but for us the match tomorrow will be a new chance to show why we are here.”

Uladzimir Maisiyevich, coach of Belarus: “It was a difficult match for us because Russia are a strong team and they put pressure on us with good serving from the beginning. But we expected this and now we must think about our next game against Turkey tomorrow.  We watched their match against Serbia and surely they are a very good team with strong players. We will try to do our best and I hope to take something away from this match.”

Konstantin Abaev, captain of Russia: “We played really well today. We had good reception, good serving, good blocking... Everything in our game was just perfect. We made minimum unforced errors and we manage to win by 3-0. Now we will have a chance to watch the match of our next opponent Czech Republic against Italy here and to prepare in the best way for the game tomorrow. I think that our pool here is really strong. We played against Italy before the tournament so we know them, but Turkey, Serbia and the Czech Republic are also really good teams. So it will be hard, but we are ready and our main goal here is to finish in first place in the pool and to win a medal!”

Mikhail Nikolaev, coach of Russia: “Objectively, we were stronger today. We played very well and made a few mistakes despite the pressure of the first match in a competition. We were confident during the match and won our first three points. This is a good start for us. After dinner we will come back here to watch our next opponent Czech Republic. They are also a good team with strong spikers who can be a problem for us.”

Italy started the match confidently and managed to take a four-point lead at 21-17. Radek Suda scored two aces in a row and with another powerful serve gave chance to a successful counter-attack to bring the Czech Republic closer, to just one point behind. After coach Michele Totire’s time-out, his players found their rhythm again to win the opening set by 25-22.

Two powerful aces by Matej Smidl made the result 6-3 to Czechia in the beginning of the second set. Smidl’s wonderful single block gave his team a four-point lead at 16-12. Good serving and blocking – this was the Czech recipe in this set and after another perfect diagonal ace by Radek Suda the set was closed at 25-20.

Italy started the third set better and had a four-point lead at the first technical time-out. Martin Kop scored an ace and the Czech Republic was really close behind their opponents at 19-21. However, Italy did a really great job in defence and with good spikes won the set by 25-21.

Czechia had the lead in the fourth set, but in the end Italy managed to make some kill blocks and with good play in defence again they turned the result to 22-19 their way. Matej Smidl was unstoppable in attack, but it was not enough, and after two successful blocks in a row Italy won the set by 25-20 and the match by 3-1.

Matej Smidl’s 24 points made him the best scorer of the match. Martin Kop added another 17 to the Czech tally. On the winning side, substitute Yuri Romanò led the scorers with 15 points.

Matej Smidl, player of Czech Republic: “It was a difficult match. Italy played really well in defence, but may be four balls during the whole match decided the winner. In the first two or three sets we managed to put them under pressure with our serving, but in the fourth we made too many mistakes. Tomorrow we will play against another strong team - Russia. We must show our best level, because we did not today. We must serve well and we will have our chances.”

Riccardo Sbertoli, player of Italy: “We knew that the Czech Republic are a very good team and today they played good Volleyball. We did not show our best level, but the most important thing at the start is to open your eyes and to win your first match – it does not matter how. So I am very happy with the victory. Tomorrow it will be a different match. Earlier today Serbia had a tough battle with Turkey. They managed to win, so they will be really motivated against us. But we are a very good team and we are ready to make a good match.”

Gianluca Galassi, captain of Italy: “It was a fight, but we knew that the first matches at such championships are very difficult and important. And this is one of the reasons for this start. We did not play well in the second and the third sets. We did not show our best Volleyball, but in the end we won and we are very happy with this fact. We are in a very strong pool and we must play better, because this was not a very good match for us and we must improve our performance if we want to qualify for the semifinals. After the silver medal, which we won in Turkey, it is always difficult, but now we have the chance to finish in the first place. I believe in my teammates and I think that we are ready for this next step!”

Tomas Smolka, assistant coach of Czech Republic: “We served well and Italy had problems with that, but in the third set we made some mistakes in the end and we failed to win it. In the fourth set Italy just stopped us with their block. If you look at the statistics, you will see - they made 7 kill blocks. Our serve was not on target. Tomorrow I expect a better performance against Russia and I hope to win.”

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