Luxembourg. January 14, 2021. Although visibly disappointed after yesterday's defeat to Turkey, the Macedonian volleyball players do not have time to dwell on it because today they have a chance to return to winning ways and stay on course to a possible participation at CEV EuroVolley 2021. For that to happen, they will have to play a consistent match against Bosnia and Herzegovina which has so far lost both matches of the qualifying tournament in Skopje.
Only a few days ago, TEAM MKD defeated Bosnia and Herzegovina 3-1 (27-25, 25-21, 23-25, 25-19), and in order to maintain chances for their second ever participation at EuroVolley, the Macedonians need to find a way of balancing key moments in the match. In their first head to head at this tournament, coach Ifet Mahmutovic’s players had two solid sets with the opposite Adi Osmanovic being a constant threat to the Macedonian defense. Also, the reception was troublesome for the red and yellows, as well as in most of yesterday's defeat to Turkey, hence coach Nikola Matijasevic needs to find a solution for this element of their game.
A win today would mean that the Macedonian volleyball players will achieve their initial goal for the tournament, which was to reach two victories and six points against Bosnia and Herzegovina and to hope that on Saturday they would find a way to win as many points, sets, points or even better to triumph against Turkey, and thus have the best possible score if they finish second in the group.
"We have no choice but to win against Bosnia and Herzegovina and then fight for every point against Turkey. I am convinced that we have the capacity to improve the reception, and if we do that, everything will be different in our favour,” Macedonian setter Gjorgi Gjorgiev is convinced.
At the half-way mark of the qualifying tournament taking place in the "Boris Trajkovski" arena in Skopje, Turkey tops the pool with two victories and six points, while the hosts have a win and a loss with Bosnia and Herzegovina in third place without a win nor a point so far.