Katowice, Poland, August 27, 2017. Belgium served their second five-setter, defeating Turkey 3-2 (25-22, 22-25, 21-25, 27-25, 18-16). With four points and two victories, Belgium take the lead in pool D. As both teams achieved impressive results on Friday, spectators gathered in Spodek Arena bargain on seeing great spectacle. Belgium and Turkey grew to the occasion, leaving audience satisfied with yet another tie breaker in Katowice. France and The Netherlands fought for survival in the competition, delivering the second tie-break of the day. Laurent Tillie and his players took the eventual victory (25-22, 23-25, 21-25, 30-28, 15-12), keeping only Belgium certain of advancing to the next round.
An even beginning of the first set was broken by Pieter Verhees who’s ace was followed by a tip of Stjin D’Hulst, giving Belgium one point lead (2-1). Few minutes later Turkey caught up and run ahead to 8-7 at the first technical time-out. The score turned around quickly as Tomas Rousseaux scored two aces and put his team 11-8 ahead, forcing Turkey’s coach to call a time-out. After Burutay Subasi’s kills followed by marvellous Mert Matic’s block (21-21), new hope was pulled into Turkish hearts, but it was Belgium who won the opener 25-22 with Rousseaux’ spike.
After well-kept passing and powerful performance at the service line by Sam Deroo, Belgium jumped at 5-3 leading at the beginning of the second set. However, Gökhan Gökgöz fierce service followed by Metin Toy’s left-wing kill pushed Turkey 8-7 ahead at the first technical time-out. Belgium’s mistakes kept Turkey’s lead 11-8 and allowed them to control the game, nonetheless the situation was changing rapidly. Belgium didn’t surrender as they regained focus and went ahead to 19-18 after Pieter Verhees’ counter-attack, but Metin Toy proved powerful at the service line once again ending the set 25-22.
Similarly to previous sets both teams began playing tight after returning to court ten minutes later. After some mistakes of Belgian team and nice spike by Mert Matic, it was Turkey who led 8-4 at the first technical time-out. Impressive kills by Rousseaux and Verhees let Belgium start the chase and get closer to 11-10. Turkey found it hard to keep the four-point lead at 17-13, when D’Hulst came down from the service line after turning the lead - with the help of Verhees - to 19-17 for Belgium. Metin Toy finished the thrilling and full of twists last part of the set at 25-21 giving Turkey the lead in the match.
Turkey kept the momentum, putting a lot of pressure on Belgium and taking early lead at 6-2 and keeping the four point lead at the first technical time out with the help of Gökhan Gökgöz. A few moments later Gökgöz sustained an injury, while Belgium slowly caught up at 17-17 and were able to win another vehement ending 27-25.
Tie-break started with balanced game as both teams kept their focus and after first minutes the result showed 5-5. After long service by Toy, Belgium led 8-7 at the side switch. Turkey regained focus and with some nice blocks not only caught up, but had a match point. Nonetheless, after a block by Pieter Verhees and Francois Lecat it was Belgium who had a chance to win a match (15-14). They did it finally at 18-16 after Turkey’s long spike.
Quotes
Vital Heynen, Belgium coach: “We played very bad today, so the future of Belgium is not looking good. We should play much better against Turkey, who played a very good game. The most interesting thing is to play bad and win. If you can learn this, you can go far. So that is interesting.”
Tomas Rousseaux, Belgium outside spiker: “It was a very interesting match. It was difficult for us to play the same level as we played with France. Maybe we were a little bit too stressed as it was a very important game for us today. It wasn’t our most beautiful Volleyball today, but we were able to win and we are happy because of that.”
Josko Milenkoski, Turkey coach: "We played a great game today, despite the loss. We had two match points in both 4th and the 5th set, but I think we did lose a bit of rhythm when Gökhan Gökgöz sustained an injury. Perhaps we need to play with keeping our emotions more in control, which is difficult when the game slips away form your hands. I am a bit disappointed with that result, as we were close to both winning and getting three points here. I think we will be going to the play-offs, but it is now a matter of waiting to see if we secure it today when France win or whether we will have to confirm our spot tomorrow against them ourselves.”
Arslan Ekşi, Turkey setter: “We are really sad as we have failed in this match. I think we deserved the win, but we couldn’t finish it as we wanted. We have played really good Volleyball and we did our best. We won on Friday, we were close to winning here, so tomorrow we will try to win with France.”
The Netherlands vs France 2-3 (22-25, 25-23, 25-21, 28-30, 12-15)
The opening belonged to France, who quickly jumped 4-0 ahead. Gido Vermeulen called a time-out, but France maintained their lead to 8-3 with a counter-attack spike by Stephen Boyer. Kevin Le Roux proved strong at the service line, allowing France to move the score to 15-9. Despite their best tries in defence, The Netherlands were not able to tie the score and Barthélemy Chineyeze finished the set 25-22 with a powerful spike.
With well-kept passing and efficient spikes on both wings, France jumped to a 4-1 lead at the beginning of the second set. Chinenyeze pushed France 6-3 ahead with a smart tip and Le Roux extended the lead to four points at the first technical time-out (8-4). A triple block performed by Nimir Abdel-Aziz, Thijs ter Horst and Thomas Koelewijn and Daan Van Haarlem’s smart dink helped the Oranjes level the score at 11-11. It was just the beginning of a Dutch getaway - they took a 16-14 lead at the second technical time-out. A very balanced final stage of the set was finished at 25-23 with the Netherlands’ spike.
Laurent Tillie did not waste a moment at the beginning of the third set, calling time out at 4-3 for The Netherlands. Nevertheless, it did not give the desired effect as Andringa’s fine spike extended the Dutch lead to two points (5-3). The Netherlands managed to keep it at the first technical time-out (8-6). France tried to turn the score as they caught up at 15-15, but with well playing Andringa and Abdel-Aziz, the Dutch team were able to put an end to the French chase. Cheered up by their fans gathered in Spodek Arena, The Netherlands played incredible defence and won the third set 25-21.
The Netherlands opened the fourth set with the same lead at 8-6 with a double block by Abdel-Aziz and Michael Parkinson. France brought all their strengths to the table, sending long awaited Earvin Ngapeth to court, who helped his team turn the score to 11-8. At 22-21 for the Netherlands, Laurent Tillie called a break which helped his team keep their cool. With patient play point by point and a good performance from Thibault Rossard, France extended their chances in the match, winning the set at 30-28.
A fierce fight from both sides with Ngapeth jumping over the advertising boards at 2-2 and Abdel-Aziz firing a strong spike at 3-3 kept audience at the edge of their seats. Rossard served two aces, extending his team's lead to two points (6-4). After a Dutch error, France increased their advantage to three points (10-7) and were able to hold on to it until the very end (15-12).
Quotes
Laurent Tillie, France coach: "Truth be told we don’t play well at the moment. We are fighting against injuries, tiredness, stress and we want to play too good for our current abilities. We are battling everywhere, in all elements on court - setting, spiking, blocking, serving… Today’s goal was just about survival and tomorrow’s goal will be the same. We are accepting right now that we are not playing well and we will have to find solution while trying to survive in this competition. We hoped we wouldn’t have to use Earvin Ngapeth so early in the competition, because he is not in a good physical shape. He did two good training sessions in the past couple of days and it was either to use him today or never, because if we had lost this game, we would be out of the race. We had to take that risk, so thank you Earvin."
Benjamin Toniutti, France captain: "We came back from hell, we suffered a lot in this match. I hope that this victory gave us a lot of relief, set us free and allow us to “re-enter” this tournament. We played a bit better, but it was not enough to finish the game as quickly as we wanted. Finally, we woke up and were able to win the match thanks to our substitute players. Even though Earvin Ngapeth is not ready physically, he was able to give us a lot of energy, which was very important for our group. I can say the same about Thibault Rossard and Barthélemy Chinenyeze, who entered the game at the end with a very good style."
Gido Vermeulen, The Netherlands coach: "I think that the game was spectacular for the viewers. We didn’t start well, but in the end we played very well. We had two match points so we had the victory in our hands. But unfortunately we didn’t use these chances. I didn’t see any weak points in the game. I just saw two teams fighting until the very end. It was rather a matter of good or bad luck."
Nimir Abdel-Aziz, The Netherlands opposite: "After losing our opening match against Turkey on Friday, this was the best reaction we could give. We played very well against France, currently the best team in the world. It's a shame we couldn't finish it off when we had the chance."
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