But, advancing among the four best teams in the continental champions was a success by itself and Azerbaijan still have a chance to claim the bronze medal, first-ever in the history of their volleyball.
“We are obviously very disappointed. The Netherlands showed very fast volleyball and we tried to play better as the match progressed. We came back in the fourth set and we fought for the tie-break. Unfortunately, our opponent was better in the end. We lost but we continue our journey in this competition, hoping to win at least a bronze,” Polina Rahimova, the best player of Azerbaijani NT in the 2017 CEV Europan Championship, said.
“Our team did not play that well in block and serve. The Netherlands, on the other hand, showed a good performance, especially in defense and attack. We tried to make some changes to our initial tactics and eventually won the fourth set. Unfortunately, in the tie-break, we made some mistakes and ended up losing. Now we start preparing for the bronze medal game – but of course we hoped to play the big final,” Nataliya Mammadova added.
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