Croatia remained in contention for the eighth-finals of the 2021 CEV Men’s Volleyball European Championship.
Croatia made a big leap towards advancing to the knockout stage of the CEV Men’s EuroVolley 2021. In its fourth match in Pool D in Tallinn, the team coached by Emanuele Zanini rose from the ashes against the pool host Estonia, coming back from 0-2 to 3-2. Partially, it was 20-25, 22-25, 25-18, 26-24, and 15-9. Croatia is now third in the charts with four points and 2-2, with one match to play. France and Germany already secured playoff berths from Pool D. Apart from Croatia, two more teams hope to find themselves there – Latvia and Slovakia. Marko Sedlaček was the most deserving player for the win of Croatia today, scoring 20 points. Filip Šestan set up four blocks.
It was clear prior to the match against Greece that Serbia will compete in the Round of 16 and that it cannot top Pool A in Kraków (Poland). However, the reigning champion will try to forget today’s encounter as soon as possible even though it earned victory playing with its main players from the third set onwards: 3-2 (25-23, 22-25, 25-16, 28-30, 15-5). The motivated opponent sweated the favorite well, being a completely equal rival during the big part of the match, making the fight more uncertain than expected. This point will mean a lot to Greece, the absolute underdog in the pool, because it still has a slight chance to go to the next stage. Pavle Perić was Serbia’s best scorer with 14 points. Petar Krsmanović made 85 % attack (11/13).
The Dutch National Team is through to the playoffs as the winner of its pool. The protégés of Roberto Piazza beat Pool C host Finland in Tampere with a score of 3-1 (25-23, 21-25, 27-25, 25-20). With these three points, ’Oranje’ reached 13 in total and 4-1, leaving Turkey no chance of surpassing them in the charts regardless of its result in the last match against Finland. Nimir Abdel-Aziz was once again on a high level, pouring in 34 points on the winning side. Fabian Plak made 79 % attack (11/14, one error, blocked once), while Robbert Andringa had 71 % reception (14 digs, 7 % excellent). This pool is the only one, for now, whose all four representatives in the eighth-finals are determined: The Netherlands, Turkey, Russia, and Finland.
