Szczecin / Katowice, Poland, August 24, 2017.  The day before the start of LOTTO EUROVOLLEY POLAND 2017 action in Pools B and D, in Szczecin and Katowice, respectively, the two Polish cities confirmed their full readiness to get a beautiful Volleyball adventure underway. During the official media briefings, attended by numerous journalists and photographers, it was emphasised both by the organisers and members of the competing teams  how eager they all are to start the battles.

Friday is the first competition day in both Szczecin and Katowice. Pool B will start with a clash between the Czech Republic and Slovakia to be followed by a match between Germany and in Italy. The Netherlands and Turkey will meet in Pool D’s opening game. Then France and Belgium will lock horns for the second fixture.

Pool B

Czech Republic

Michal Nekola, coach of Czech Republic: “Slovakia and the Czech Republic know each other very well. We know our strong and weak sides. In my opinion, the victory on Friday will not be due to the difference in skills. The most important is what will happen in our heads. For now I put the chances of both teams at 50 to 50.”

Jakub Janouch, captain of Czech Republic: “First of all, I would like to say that we are excited that this tournament will take place in Poland, because it is one of the real Volleyball nations in Europe. It is also the closest country to the Czech Republic, so we are waiting for our fans to come and support us in Szczecin. Our goal is to advance to the next round in Katowice. Now we are focused on the first match against Slovakia, which is a key match for us and the chances are 50:50. We want to show what we learnt this summer during our preparation.”

Slovakia

Andrej Kravarik, coach of Slovakia: “For now, we are focused only on the first match against the Czechs. We know how to play with them to win, but the trouble is of how to use this knowledge and play well on the court. Yes, it will certainly be a winner-take-all match for both teams.”

Emanuel Kohut, captain of Slovakia: “Our goal is to play good games against all teams in our pool at the European Championship – Germany, Italy and the Czech Republic. If we play at 100%, we can play at the same level against each one of them. If they win anyway, we can be satisfied. But we will be disappointed, if we do not do everything that we can.”



Germany

Andrea Giani, coach of Germany: “Of course we are thinking about the match with Italy, but a truly great match is taking place today at the National Stadium in Warsaw. 65 thousand people will create not only an incredible atmosphere, but a huge pressure as well. Luckily, we do not have to play there.”

Lukas Kampa, captain of Germany: “I am expecting a great spectacle. In this huge tournament we will see some very exciting matches. Poland is known for the great atmosphere and their crazy fans and I hope we are going to show them some nice Volleyball. Our first goal is to play a nice match against Italy tomorrow and then we will see. I hope the fans will have some fun out there and will keep their fingers crossed for us.”

Italy

Gianlorenzo Blengini, coach of Italy: “I have a completely new team. It is no longer the Olympic silver medallists, but a team of young players, preparing for the Games in Tokyo. France are the favourites at this championship. In my opinion, they are the strongest team in the world. Serbia and Poland count as well. But we cannot forget about the Germans and the Russians, who are as unpredictable as always.”

Simone Buti, captain of Italy: “We have been preparing for this tournament for a month and a half and finally the matches are about to start. We worked hard to be here at our maximum level. We will try to do our best, because we know that against Germany and the other two teams from our pool we must do so in order to win and then go to the final matches. We are in a very beautiful city and we will play at a very beautiful arena in Szczecin.”



Pool D

Netherlands

Gido Vermeulen, coach of Netherlands: “We are very happy to be here in Poland, because it is one of the most beautiful Volleyball countries. I think that we have a very good pool with the best team in Europe at the moment - France. We know Belgium very well. For us the most important thing is the first match against Turkey and we are totally focused on it. We have to play that game well to continue in the tournament. France and Belgium are better teams in the European ranking and for us it is very important to win the first game.”

Jasper Diefenbach, captain of Netherlands: “We are really happy to be here in the amazing country of Poland. We are here with high expectations and we would like to show ourselves as a good team. We try to focus on the first game against Turkey and we know that it is an important one to advance to the next round of the tournament. We will prepare the team for that match as well as we can. The first match is important, because the winner will have a head start in the tournament and can play the other matches in the group relatively freely in the mind, while the loser will have a hard time trying to stay in the tournament. So we focus completely on this match.”

Turkey

Josko Milenkoski, coach of Turkey: “First of all, we are really happy to be here. This is a very big tournament, a big competition for us. We had about 40 days to prepare for this EuroVolley. I can say we are ready for this challenge in one of the most difficult groups - against the Netherlands, Belgium and France. The Netherlands will be a big challenge for us. First of all, we are here to enjoy our game and after that to achieve some good results. Our goal is to qualify for the second round and step by step we will do our best. So far we did not have time to see the city of Katowice, which is a city of Volleyball. I hope within the next days we will have more chances to see more. Nonetheless, the hall and all the other conditions are amazing. Poland is a great country for this kind of competitions.”

Arslan Eksi, captain of Turkey: “We are ready for a fight, to beat everybody – beat every team. We respect everybody. Our expectation is to qualify to the next round and then for sure go further step by step.”



France

Laurent Tillie, coach of France: “We will try to win the gold medals in the tournament, but it will be very difficult. A lot of European teams are on the same high level. We will try to play as well as they do to gain some medal in the end. We are in Pool D with very interesting teams - Belgium, the Netherlands and Turkey. In the next phase, great opponents are waiting for us: Italy, Poland, Russia and Bulgaria. Our goal is the podium.”

Benjamin Toniutti, captain of France: “It will be an extremely difficult tournament. Our team wants to win a medal. We know it will be difficult, because there are many teams playing well. We will try to play our best Volleyball to achieve the goal we set before the event.”

Belgium

Vital Heynen, coach of Belgium: “It is a special tournament, because a long time ago we had one big favourite and everybody would say it is France. What about all the other teams? We do not know what to expect from them. Poland will play at home, but some of their players deal with injuries. Serbia will play without Marko Ivovic. Germany brought György Grozer back. Slovenia will play without Klemen Cebulj. Bulgaria will play with a complete squad. And where is the place for Belgium? I do not know. I explain to my players - there will be surprises and we have to hope that we can surprise the others. We can expect a very interesting tournament.”

Sam Deroo, captain of Belgium: “Our realistic goal is to qualify for the next round, but the dream of our team is to fight for a medal in the semi-final against Poland. I hope we are able to go to Krakow and play our best Volleyball there.”