Plovdiv, Bulgaria, September 3, 2016. Unlike Friday, when Poland had to survive a two-set deficit in their opening Pool I match at the Final Round of the 2016 CEV U20 Volleyball European Championship - Men, on Saturday they cruised to a straight-set 3-0 (25-21, 25-20, 25-18) win against Ukraine to open the competition day in Europe’s oldest living city. The home fans in Plovdiv were pleased to see Bulgaria recover from yesterday’s loss with a 3-0 (25-18, 25-15, 25-18) shutout of Slovenia. In the closing match of the day the spectators at the Kolodruma witnessed a real drama between Germany and France with the Germans celebrating in the end with a 3-2 (25-23, 31-33, 19-25, 25-14, 16-14) victory.
The Ukrainians put up a tough fight in the first set and even had a two-point lead at 18-16. However, in the conclusive moments, their reception was distorted by Bartosz Kwolek and Jakub Ziobrowski’s serves and Poland stepped ahead to reach set point at 24-20. It was again Ziobrowski who finished the job with a back-row attack for 25-21.
Only twice Ukraine managed to be in the lead in the second set – at 1-0 and at 4-3. The rest of the time, with Jakub Kochanowski and Tomasz Fornal on fire, Poland were well in control. They extended their advantage to as many as six points before the eventual 25-20 was fixed with a successful hit by Fornal.
Set 3 was competitive through 11-11, after which Poland broke away to 17-11 with Ziobrowski serving. He made a fantastic contribution of 10 points towards this set’s final 25-18, including a successful spike and a kill block for the last two points.
Jakub Ziobrowski became the overall top scorer of the game with 20 points. Kwolek and Kochanowski scored 12 and 11, respectively. On the other side of the net, Dmytro Viietskyi led the scores with 10 points.
Jakub Kochanowski, captain of Poland: “Serving was the weakest element of our team, but I expect improvement of all elements in our play for the rest of the tournament. We play to win in every match.”
Sebastian Pawlik, coach of Poland: “I am glad we achieved the victory, because we play to win every match. The thing we need to improve is our service.”
Heorhii Klepko, player of Ukraine: “We did not play well. We need to recover and get some sleep if we want to achieve something more against Slovenia.”
Mykola Pasazhin, coach of Ukraine: “Our team has a lot of things to improve after the game with Poland. The Polish team was better and deserved the victory. We need to recover before the game with Slovenia, because our only option is the victory.”
Slovenia won the first rally of the match, but that was the last time they were in the lead during the first set. Inspired by the noisy crowd on the stands, Bulgaria strung the next six points and never looked back. With middle blocker Gordan Lyutskanov leading the home team’s offence with seven points, the young Lions cruised on to win the set by 25-18.
The story of the second set was similar, only Slovenia managed to hold up a little longer. At 7-7 was the last time the score was level and after 11-10 Bulgaria started making the gap wider and wider with better spiking and blocking than the opposition and much fewer errors. Substitute Georgi Mihalev had the chance to close the set, shaping up the final 25-15 with a diagonal spike.
Slovenia looked for a way to change the course of the game and started off with a 3-0 lead in set 3. The Bulgarians quickly recovered to level at 5-5, but the stage was set for the most interesting set of the match. It was very competitive through the second technical time-out, which came with a point advantage for the home team. After 17-16, six points in a row for Bulgaria pre-decided the outcome of the match and moments later another substitute player, Preslav Yordanov, put an end to the game with a kill block for 25-18.
Radoslav Parapunov contributed 13 points to the victory. His teammate, Plamen Shekerdzhiev, and Slovenia's Matic Vrtovec scored 11 points each.
Urban Toman, libero of Slovenia: “We played really badly. It was not our day. We hope we will play better tomorrow and we will try to prepare for Ukraine.”
Stanislav Dramov, libero of Bulgaria: “We definitely played better than yesterday. We were in a better mood today. Yes, the audience supported us, but our inner motivation was more important for our success. The fact that we already won against our next opponents France in an unofficial preparation game means nothing. This will be another match.”
Vladimir Nikolov, coach of Bulgaria: “I am glad - we played well. We showed a fair part of our skills. The game against France will be tough. They are a strong opponent, but I think we are better and we must show this in the match.”
Despite the seven points with which France’s Rémi Bassereau impressed in the first set, Germany emerged on top at the end of this very exciting opening part. After many changes in the lead and the score levelled at 17-17, the French made a four-point run to 21-17. However, Germany did not delay their reaction a lot and, also with four points in a row, tied it back at 22-22. Moments later they closed the set with a block-out for 25-23.
The noisy support for the German team from the stands continued in the second set and so did the good performance on the court by both teams. It was another set when the lead changed hands many times, but while the Germans managed to build up a three-point advantage on a couple of occasions, the first time France extended their lead to more than a point was when the set finished. Well into overtime, after as many as nine set points that did not get converted, on the tenth one, Joachim Panou hammered an ace that gave the set to France at 33-31.
Psychologically, this was a turning point for the next set. At 2-1 was the last time in set 3, when the Germans had the lead. They stepped up their blocking efforts, but their success rate in offence dropped drastically. The French reception was also much better and this helped setter Léo Meyer find fruitful variety in France’s attacks. Les Bleus dominated through the rest of the set and deservedly won it by 25-19.
The Germans did not wait long to respond. The fourth set was even only through the first technical time-out. After that, coach Johan Verstappen’s team started piling up an advantage with a good effort on all elements, while the opposition’s offence dropped its efficiency. When it started to become clear what the outcome of the set would be, France’s coach Jocelyn Trillon even gave some rest to some of his main players. Germany broke far away to close the set at an impressive 25-14.
The tie-breaker brought in a lot of thrills to everyone at the Kolodruma. France could not hold on to the four-point lead they had piled up with some good offensive effort at 12-8, despite Germany’s flawless performance. Five points in a row for the Germans, with Johannes Tille serving, changed the course of the match. The French managed to save the first match point, but gave in at the second – 16-14 in the set and a 3-2 win for Germany.
France’s Thibaut Thoral with 21 points and his teammate Joachim Panou with 20 topped the scorers’ chart of the match. On the German side, Egor Bogachev and Tobias Krick scored 19 each.
Barthelemy Chinenyeze, captain of France: “It was a very hard match. Germany played well. We should have ended the game earlier. We need to win against Bulgaria.”
Jocelyn Trillon, coach of France: “It was a close game. We lost sets after leading - we did not kill the set. We were leading by four points and lost the last set. I will try to motivate my team.”
Johannes Tille, player of Germany: “It was a very good game. It will be very hard against Poland. We will try to win.”
Johan Verstappen, coach of Germany: “It was a match at the top level! Compliments to both teams for showing such a level at this age! We need to recover and prepare for the match against Poland.”
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