04/01/2017 10:01
Latvia take on powerful opponents in U20 World Champs home qualifier
2017 FIVB U20 Women Volleyball World Championship - European Qualification
Riga, Latvia, January 4, 2017. One of four first-round qualification tournaments to this year’s FIVB Women’s U20 Volleyball World Championship will be taking place later this weekend at Daugava sports centre in Riga with hosts Latvia playing the national teams of Croatia, Denmark and Germany.
Last year Latvia played Germany and Croatia in a tournament qualifying to the U19 European Championships and lost both matches by 0-3, with Germany and Croatia eventually competing in the Final Round of that competition where they finished seventh and twelfth, respectively.
Latvia head coach Andrejs Odinokovs said: “Latvia played Germany and Croatia in last year’s U19 European qualification and I have to admit that both of these teams are strong. We have to play as a team and go through a high-quality training process in order to be successful against opponents of this calibre. I am satisfied with what we have done so far; we did a great job during our camp at the sports school in Murjani but unfortunately our best players are not able to play in this tournament. We have just returned home from Estonia where we played two friendly matches. Talking about the team, I have been experimenting with our players but I am satisfied with the results we achieved.”
Latvia are not the favourites in this tournament but Odinokovs added: “We will be trying our best in order to win the upcoming matches. Our first game will be with Denmark, and there we have some real chances to win. However, Croatia and Germany are strong opponents and the following matches will be a lot more challenging.”
Note: The first placed teams of each pool plus the three second-placed teams with the best score will progress to the second stage of the qualification process. Since one of the first-round pools consists of three teams only, the second best placed teams will be determined after discarding the results of the matches with the team finishing last in each one of the pools of four.
Click here for further information including a detailed match schedule
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