Germany
Germany opened in great fashion by combining great defense and fast attacks to demolish the resistance of the home side and claim the opening set with a terrific 25-12, a score that clearly reflected the dominance of the guys in white jerseys. Slovenia finally found their way into the game in set 2 as they drew level at 15 helped by Tine Urnaut and Mitja Gasparini. They even cruised to the front at 19:18 but too many mistakes in the final rush paved the way with gold for Germany. Nothing changed in the third set where Germany played with great composure and stood out in blocking to finish it off with a superb 3:0 and celebrate their qualification for the final round of the European Championship.
“It was just a perfect match as we could stop our opponents almost everywhere. I am very happy with the performance of our libero who, in my opinion, was today’s best player” said the head coach of Germany, Vital Heynen.
“I just can’t find the words to comment this match; maybe my players just could not stand the pressure and they made a way too many mistakes” stated home mentor Veselin Vukovic. “On the other hand Germany played a perfect match and they could minimize their errors. I am sorry for the spectators but with yesterday’s win we secured our second place in the group, so we are still in contention for making it to the final round of the European Championship”.
