Serbian NT
The first team to earn their place in the final was Brazil who gave the home crowd in Uberlandia a treat with a 3-0 (21-16, 22-20, and 25-23) victory against Russia. Brazil started slowly in the first two sets but came back strong both times and had to save a set point in the third before wrapping up the win. Captain Ricardo Lucarelli was restored to the team after a recent knee problem and many of his 11 points were scored at crucial moments for Brazil, while middle-blocker Matheus Cunda scored seven blocking points in Brazil’s team total of 15 for the match.
“As always, we studied our opponent a lot,” said Cunda. “We went to sleep thinking about what they do and how they do it, so we could get here today and do our best without giving chances to them.”
Brazil will meet Serbia in the gold medal final after they ruthlessly demolished Bulgaria 3-0 (21-13, 21-18, and 21-10) in the second semi-final. Their victory was based around a superb defensive performance from middle-blocker Srećko Lisinac who smashed the individual best for blocking points in tournament, scoring 10 out of Serbia’s team total of 18, which was also the highest number by a team.
“If we can keep this up, we can beat everybody,” said Lisinac about the quality of Serbia’s victories against Russia and Bulgaria.“I’m glad that I was able to block as I couldn’t in other matches, but we also played very well in serving and in reception.”
Alongside Serbia’s sound defense, the spiking attacks of Aleksandar Atanasijević, Filip Stoilović and Uroš Kovačević were just too much for Bulgaria to deal with.
To read more news from this competition click on World Championship U23 M.
