Luxembourg, June 8, 2019. Romania are the only team with an immaculate record of four wins in as many matches in the CEV Men’s Volleyball European Silver League 2019. They cemented their first place in Pool B on Saturday, even though they dropped a set in their home match with Azerbaijan. Greece and Austria continue to fight for the top spot in Pool A – Greece beat Hungary 3-1 to improve their win-loss record to 3-1, while Austria seized a straight sets win on Sunday vs. Bosnia and Herzegovina. Both teams are now leaders in the pool. There are no teams yet to suffer a loss in the women’s competition, since Israel’s and Slovenia’s run of victories ended on Saturday at the hands of Romania and Portugal, respectively.
MEN
Pool A
Hungary vs. Greece 1-3 (25-21, 23-25, 17-25, 15-25)
• Hungary overplayed and surprised Greece in the first set. They took the lead after an impressive 25-21 win.
• However, Greece managed to come back by winning narrowly the second set and jauntily the third. They attacked and concentrated better during the crucial rallies.
• Despite some great moments, Hungary could not keep up with the pool leaders. Greece collected their third victory in the pool after winning the fourth set.
Bogdan Tanase, head coach of Hungary: “Greece knew how to handle difficult situations and their experience decided the match. We were really close to winning the second set but after losing that, we could not renew our game. My team is really young so we need to gain experience as much as we can to achieve great results.”
Dimitrios Andreopoulos, head coach of Greece: “After losing the first set, we managed to find our rhythm. We knew that we could win the match all the way and our faith helped us a lot during the difficult moments. I am really happy that we remained at the top of the pool.”
Austria vs. Bosnia and Herzegovina 3-0 (25-20, 25-21, 25-21)
• Austria’s Volleyball national team - men celebrated their third victory out of four matches played so far in the 2019 CEV Volleyball European Silver League. The players of Michael Warm showed great skills in the different components and overall a stronger performance and deservedly grabbed a straight sets win in the Multiversum Schwechat vs. Bosnia and Herzegovina (25-20, 25-21, 25-21).
• After Leg 4, both Austria and Greece have three victories and nine points in Pool A so far.
• Only the group winner will qualify for the final.
• Austria’s next match will take place on Wednesday in Raiffeisen Sportpark Graz against Hungary.
• Former national team player Philip Schneider was honoured after the first set, receiving a plaque by ÖVV President Gernot Leitner and Sports Director Gottfried Rath. The player from Vorarlberg played no less than 160 international matches for Austria between 2001 and 2019. Last January, Schneider helped the Austrian team qualify for the first time in their history for the European Championship after hosting the event in 2011 together with the Czech Republic.
Michael Warm, head coach of Austria: "The door is now wide open. We are the leaders in our group together with Greece and that is important. We want to reach the final. Of course we can play better, but today we won despite the fact that we were serving badly. This should give us a boost of self-confidence for the next matches."
Alexander Berger, player of Austria: "Our goal was to take home the three points. We want to reach the final, which means we needed a 3-0 win today and we will need the same result against Hungary too. It is important that our game is on a solid level. The focus lies on the #EuroVolleyM, and we use each match to improve in the small details. We want to win every match that we play."
Nemanja Vidovic, player of Bosnia and Herzegovina: "Every match is an experience for us, especially after such a long absence from international competitions. In the future we want to win at least one set against this very strong Austrian team."
Pool B
Georgia vs. Denmark 0-3 (1-25, 22-25, 9-25)
• Denmark took their second victory in as many matches with Georgia – without dropping a set in the process.
• Rasmus Breuning Nielsen from Denmark top scored with 11 points.
• In the second set, Georgia tried to change the course of the match, leading several times but unfortunately, their wish was not enough to do this.
• The first set finished in only 17 minutes.
• Georgia have lost four matches in a row while Denmark’s win-loss record stands at 3-1.
Sulkhan Akhvlediani, head coach of Georgia: “It is very difficult for us to play this year in the European League, because most of our leading players were injured before we started to prepare. We hope the next time our participation will be more productive.”
Romania vs. Azerbaijan 3-1 (25-20, 23-25, 25-21, 27-25)
• The Romanian fans had a great day as their men’s national team followed their women’s team in Alexandria to contribute to a second victory in one day.
• The home team had a great start in the opening set and they took the lead to secure a 25-20 win.
• Azerbaijan improved their game during the second set. Romania could not handle Dmitriy Obodnikov’s spikes. With his attacks, the visitors claimed a 25-23 win.
• Romania had a fantastic comeback as they played as a team. The reception began to work again, which helped their captain Laurentiu Lica, who scored many points in his favourite area. Razvan Mihalcea doubled his colleague’s efforts, to seal the fate of the third set at 25-21.
• The fourth set was a truly dramatic one with spectacular rallies from both sides. Azerbaijan were leading 16-9 and 21-17 when setter Cristian Bartha opened the ways to Laurentiu Lica and Marian Bala to seal a 27-25 win for the home side.
• Romania’s Laurentiu Lica ended the game with 16 points. Azerbaijan middle blocker Dmitriy Obodnikov answered with 15 points.
Danut Pascu, head coach of Romania: “It was a really tough match that eventually we managed to win paying more attention in reception and blocking. The lost set was a good lesson for us and made us improve our reception rally after rally. We look forward to the next match against Denmark and we know that this is going to be a challenging one.”
WOMEN
Pool A
Romania vs. Israel 3-0 (25-14, 25-15, 25-21)
• After losing 2-3 in Israel last Sunday, Romania took their revenge this time, especially having in mind that they were playing at home.
• In the first two set the hosts did not have any problems to control the match. Israel, on the other hand, could not display much consistency in their performance.
• In the third set, the visitors were leading by three points, but after a double substitution made by the head coach of Romania – Luciano Pedullà, his team got back on track and easily won 25-21.
• Ariana-Cristiana Pirv became the best scorer of the match with 14 points for the hosts while Galya Devash scored 11 times for Israel.
Luciano Pedullà, head coach of Romania: “It is an honour for me to coach Romania. We have a young and good team that has a lot of potential to grow. We are taking it one step at a time and will now prepare for the next match.”
Giuseppe Cuccarini, head coach of Israel: “Romania played much better than they did in Israel. Our approach was a bit nervous and we did not play our usual game. I would like to congratulate them on the victory.”
Georgia vs. Cyprus 0-3 (24-26, 14-25, 17-25)
• Georgia enjoyed a comfortable lead (7-1, 18-10 and 21-11) in the first set but after a dramatic fight lasting half an hour, Cyprus fought back to take it and from there, the visitors eventually took the match as well.
• Tinatin Zhgenti of Georgia, born in 2002, was the youngest player to take to the court in Tbilisi.
• Andrea Charalambous, at 31 the most experienced player in this match, top scored with 13 points.
• The match took place at the arena named after Vazha Kacharava, an Olympic champion with the former Soviet Union at the 1964 Games in Tokyo.
Gvantsa Markarashvili, player of Georgia: “I cannot find the words to describe how disappointed I am for this match. We mobilised all of our energy for the rematch today against Cyprus but I cannot explain what happened in the first set and in the subsequent sets either. I hope that this will be a good lesson for us.”
Pool B
Estonia vs. Greece 1-3 (8-25, 23-25, 25-21, 13-25)
• Greece managed to push Estonia with their effective service from the beginning of the game and gained a lot of confidence from that.
• Estonia lost the first set 8-25 and then stepped up; the hosts conceded a close 23-25 loss in the second set and won the third 25-21. The fourth set was similar to the first and Greece won it at a canter (25-13).
• Anthi Vasilantonaki set the pace for Greece with 20 points.
• Greece now have nine points after improving their record to three wins and one loss only.
Guillermo Naranjo Hernandez, head coach of Greece: "I would say the key for the win was the service today. Sometimes, especially in the women’s game, good servers can give the team a huge push and we started to push the opponent with the serve, gained confidence and had a good start. Estonia are a very physical team and so we knew we needed to push them with the serve. In the third set, things changed a little bit but we managed to jump back to the game in the fourth.”
Oliver Lüütsepp, assistant coach of Estonia: “We missed some good performances at the beginning, but I cannot say we did not want to play or we were not ready. After such a slow start, we picked it up and things got better. However, in the end we did not manage to stop them in attack. If we want to play well against a team like Greece, all of our players have to be on their top level, and today this was not the case.”
Portugal vs. Slovenia 3-2 (25-27, 25-22, 25-23, 22-25, 15-9)
• Portugal started the match very well: with their aggressive attack and efficacy in reception and service, they surprised the pool leaders (7-2). Nevertheless, Alessandro Chiappini’s team soon recovered and tied at 8-8. The score remained close until Julia Kavalenka helped the home team gain a small advantage (20-17). Slovenia reacted once again, levelled the score at 23 and went on to close the set by 27-25.
• With their block controlling Lana Scuka and Darja Erzen’s attacks, Portugal made it 9-6 in the second set. The hosts kept the lead until the end of the set (23-22) with Eduarda Duarte sealing a 25-22 win to account for the first set loss for Slovenia in the competition.
• In the third set, Portugal claimed the lead once more (12-10) with Kavalenka and Aline Rodrigues scoring in attack and Barbara Gomes from the service line (23-21), eventually closing the set at 25-23.
• With a solid defence and a much more aggressive service, Slovenia achieved a large gap in the fourth set (18-13). Portugal’s reaction thrilled the public (22-23), but the visitors managed a 25-22 win.
• Supported by the public and with their strong action on the block, Portugal took the lead in the decider (6-3). A serve from captain Vanessa Rodrigues paved the way to a 15-9 win.
• Julia Kavalenka was the best scorer of the match with 34 points (including five blocks) and Lana Scuka was the most prolific one from Slovenia with 23.
Francisco dos Santos, head coach of Portugal: “The big difference from this match compared to the previous ones was in our players’ attitude. They played with joy, communicated between them and kept their spirit high throughout the entire match. We do not have a chance to qualify to the finals anymore but we keep evolving and that is what we want. We want to use the next matches to be as good as we can be when playing at EuroVolley later this summer.”
Alessandro Chiappini, head coach of Slovenia: “Today we did not play at our level, but I hope that this match serves us as a lesson for the games that we still have to play.”
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