26/09/2017 20:30
Netherlands rout Croatia to shape up highly anticipated quarterfinal with Italy
2017 CEV Volleyball European Championship - Women
Baku, Azerbaijan, September 26, 2017. The Netherlands were simply too much to stand for Croatia – and on Tuesday evening the silver medallists from the 2015 edition of the women’s EuroVolley stormed to a comprehensive 3-0 victory (25-18, 25-8, 25-21) to secure their spot in the quarterfinals, where they will be playing Italy. Croatia fought as much as they could in the third set – but the Netherlands came from behind to remain in contention for a second straight European Championship medal.
The Netherlands were the heavy favourites going into this match – and even though Croatia put up a fight in the opening set, the ‘Oranjes’ simply had too much quality and depth to offer on their roster to feel some kind of a threat. At times, the outsiders from Croatia succeeded in finding their game and the opening set was a relatively close one, even though the Netherlands eventually emerged victorious at 25-18.
As for the second set, this was pretty much a show of strength by the Dutch players – who stormed to a terrific 25-8 win in no time to double their lead in the match and set their sights on a spot in the quarterfinals.
Croatia were still vying for a spot among the top eight in Europe – a feat they had achieved for the last time back in 2013, when they finished the tournament co-hosted by Germany and Switzerland in fifth place. They had no other option than to fight for every ball – and this is what they did from the early stages of the third set as they scored six straight points to prompt a Dutch time-out. This was some kind of a wake-up call for the Netherlands even though they still trailed by five points at the first technical break.
Their almost too dominant performance from the second set was probably the reason for this drop of concentration – but they found their way back into the game as they levelled the score at 13-all before trailing by two at the second technical time-out. Samanta Fabris and Katarina Barun Susnjar set the pace for Croatia but the Netherlands eventually edged ahead at 21-20 on an ace by Celeste Plak. A block on Barun added another point to the Dutch tally and it was only a matter of time until eventual top scorer Anne Buijs sealed a 3-0 win for the ‘Oranjes’ (25-21).
Quotes
Jamie Morrison, head coach of the Netherlands: “I am happy with the way we played. We came out and, I think especially in the middle of the first set, we really got it going. That showed in the second set, which we dominated. Just like in the rest of this tournament, other teams are not going to quit against us, so the third set was more difficult and I was happy with the way we responded. There was no panic – it was a similar story to the rest of this tournament, like the Czech match and we learned a little bit from that experience, and took it back at them.”
Celeste Plak, player of the Netherlands: “We got through the pool phase – not with the best Volleyball, but luckily it was good enough. Today against Croatia we played a decent match, we got a lot of attacking points and our serving was strong too. We should keep this level and take it as a standard, from which we can continue to rise – because if we want to continue in the competition, the teams will of course keep getting stronger – and so will we. So let’s see how we can develop in this tournament. I’m confident we can do it.”
Igor Lovrinov, coach of Croatia: “Obviously the Dutch team was stronger than us and they fully deserved to win. There is not much that I can say about this game. The Netherlands played great Volleyball and I am looking forward to seeing their match with Italy in the next round. I am satisfied with my team’s performance at this tournament, especially since I have been with this group for two weeks only. We played a good tournament, maybe we missed some opportunities in the pool phase in Tbilisi but overall I can be satisfied.”
Rene Sain, libero of Croatia: “I do not know what happened in the first set and the second set was like a black hole for us, it was really bad. However, I have to say that the Netherlands have an extremely good team and it was clear that we could not do so much against them. They played really fast, really good and they did so from the very beginning of the match. This is my first tournament at this level because I am very young – it will be my best memory because the first time is always the best.”
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