Krakow, Poland, September 2, 2017. Serbia and Germany opened the programme of the LOTTO EUROVOLLEY POLAND 2017 semi-finals on Saturday in Krakow, with these two teams trying to add another chapter to their winning streak in the competition. Germany prevailed after a truly dramatic five-set clash (24-26, 15-25, 25-18, 27-25, 15-13) to secure their first #EuroVolleyM medal in history. Serbia could not capitalise on two match points they had at the end of the fourth set and will have to play for bronze on Sunday. Germany have improved on their best result at the men’s European Championship – they finished fourth in 1991 and 1993, while the former East Germany had settled for that same position in 1967 and 1971.
Serbia had a little advantage from the beginning of the match, taking an early 7-4 lead after a German fault. They stayed ahead for quite long, for the next tie came only at 22-all. The Serbian team played much better than their opponent did and a block by Uroš Kovačević extended their lead to 14-9. Marko Podraščanin went even further, serving an ace to earn a 16-10 advantage at the second technical break. After this, Germany finally woke up - a stint of better play and a little luck reduced their gap to just one point (19-20). Following a tie at 22-22, both sides exchanged hits but it was Serbia to claim the first period at 26-24 with Srećko Lisinac’s block.
The second set was close at first but György Grozer struggled to find his rhythm and another mistake by the German opposite resulted in an 8-5 Serbian lead at the first technical time-out. Serbia seemed to repeat the pattern of the previous set and were able to keep an advantage – whether this was bigger or smaller, this was only due to Germany (lack of) consistency. After Podraščanin stepped up again with a monster spike (20-14) and an ace (22-14), a double block by Lisinac and Kovačević ended the lopsided set at 25-15.
The start of the third period coincided with another Serbian early lead following an ace by Nemanja Petrić (5-3). It did not last long, however, as a block on Kovačević let Germany edge ahead at 9-8. With Grozer on a higher gear and the block making the difference, Germany looked a lot more consistent and Serbia began to lose composure a little especially when Lukas Kampa’s ace, along with a missed spike by Petrić produced a 16-10 score in favour of the Germans at the second technical break. Now it was the Serbians, who were far from perfection – their opponents took advantage of their numerous errors and Germany comfortably won the set 25-18 after a successful challenge.
The Germans set the pace until 5-2 in the fourth set – before Serbia came back to make it 5-all. The previous set was terrible for Petrić but the Serbian outside spiker found his rhythm again to lift his team with two wonderful spikes. Reserve opposite Aleksandar Atanasijević made it 14-12 in favour of Serbia and both sides played finally on a high level at the same time – showing especially their excellent blocking skills. The Germans had to defend two match balls before two timely blocks kept them alive in the competition.
The extra period started with numerous missed German serves, before Marcus Böhme’s single block provided his team with a break point. The tension was evident on both sides of the net, as the Germans lost their advantage just to edge ahead again (8-7) at the side switch. Grozer’s miss from the left wing proved to be important, with Serbia claiming a 10-8 advantage. However, it did not last for long since another swing was coming – Simon Hirsch served an ace to regain the lead for Germany at 11-10. A couple of rallies later Atanasijević made a mistake and Germany took advantage of their second match ball to end the game with a triple block (15-13).
Quotes
Srecko Lisinac, player of Serbia: “In the two first sets we played amazingly well. We prevented the opponent from setting the pace of the game, but somehow they came back. In the third and fourth sets, they showed some amazing Volleyball. We had our chances to end this match in the fourth set, but we were not able to use them. As it usually happens in sport, when you miss your chance, your opponent will take it and win. In the fifth set, we played point-by-point, but something happened with the challenge system. I do not understand why they checked our block, when we were the ones to call a challenge. This way they earned an important point. We still have a crucial match tomorrow, where we will fight to take the bronze medal. Germany never give up; they do everything they can and take many risks. They know that if they are successful in doing so, they can score many points – and so they did tonight.”
Aleksandar Atanasijevic, player of Serbia: “After this long break between sets, Germany were able to improve their game a lot, whereas we made a few mistakes. We were a bit surprised that we started to lose control, but now we have to prepare for tomorrow’s match and fight as hard as we can for the bronze medal.”
Nikola Grbic, head coach of Serbia: “When you are losing 2-0, you just go and serve and you try everything to change the result. We were good in the first set, when we cruised to an 18-11 lead before Germany came back into the game. We were close to losing that set but we were good enough to win it. While in the locker rooms, after the second set, I told my players we had many chances to win against Germany but we should remember that they never stop fighting. We had to keep the same level we had shown in the second set and not wait for their mistakes. In the third set, we were somehow down, whereas in the fourth, we played point-by-point and we had a few occasions to end this match in our favour, but unfortunately, one challenge was crucial… It is like a fate sometimes, we lost one point by some millimetres, but this is Volleyball. I think that Germany played really well and they deserved to win, because they believed in it until the end. They won by virtue of their quality, as they played better Volleyball than we did in the last three sets. This was the key to their victory.”
Julian Zenger, libero of Germany: “We lost the first and second sets, but our coach told us in the locker rooms that it was like the match had not started yet, and we still had a chance to win. We came back by putting more pressure with our serve and by finalising most of our counterattacks. The main point is that we completely changed our game.”
Lukas Kampa, setter of Germany: “It is incredible, I should be happy right now, but I am so tired, because we spent so much energy in the quarterfinal. Today we were 0-2 down, but in the ten-minute break the coach told us that this was a semi-final of the European Championship and it was still possible to turn things around, even when you are down as we were. We believed in his words! We learned something from this match, and if we play like this, we can fight at eye level with any opponent.”
Andrea Giani, coach of Germany: “It was an incredible match, especially since we lost two sets at the beginning. It is important for our players to believe that they can win, and it is important to fight until the end. We won many matches before this tournament, because we worked a lot and improved our system of play. When we came back to the court after the break, we did a good job especially with our spikers and blockers. Our game in defence was very important in this match as well.”
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