15/05/2016 19:30
Luxembourg finish World Champs home qualifier with commanding win over Faroe Islands
2018 FIVB Men's World Championship / 2017 CEV Volleyball European Championship - Small Countries Division
Luxembourg, May 15, 2016. The ‘Red Lions’ of Luxembourg delivered another classy performance on Sunday to rout the Faroe Islands in three comprehensive sets (25-19, 25-13, 25-10) and secure first place in their pool to qualify for the second round of qualification for the 2018 FIVB Men’s World Championship due to follow in May 2017. With this result combined with Saturday’s win over Northern Ireland they also claimed a spot in the Final Round of the 2017 CEV Volleyball European Championship – Small Countries Division that will be taking place in Iceland next year as well. By virtue of their 3-1 victory over the Faroe Islands from Friday night, Northern Ireland have also secured their progression to the SCD Finals as well as to the second stage of the qualifying process for the 2018 World Championship.
Though the coaching staff of the home team decided to opt for some substitutions to provide younger players with an opportunity to perform, these did not affect the course of the match and the impressive show of strength displayed by the ‘Red Lions’ of Luxembourg.
Only the early stages of the opening set provided the audience with a closer race as the Faroese players were able to keep the score tight halfway through before Luxembourg changed gear to cruise to a comfortable 25-19 set win. Everything went just easy after that for the home team, whose supremacy at blocking and attacking was just obvious, this way sweeping the second and third sets by a landslide (25-13 and 25-10). Luxembourg coach Dieter Scholl did even change the entire starting six in the third set with middle blocker Chris Zuidberg being the only starting player to stay on through to the end of the match.
The ’Red Lions’ will continue their campaign next week when they host a first qualification round of the ‘big’ European Championship, where they will be playing much more challenging opponents, and more specifically the national teams of Austria, Lithuania and the Republic of Moldova.
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