Romania – Montenegro
Ivan Joksimovic’s team will leave Trikala being ranked second in Pool D and with good chances to continue their campaign in the next qualifying round for the European Champs.
The difference between the two teams was huge today. Romania went up 3:0 in the first set but after that Montenegro controlled the game (15:13, 21:17, 23:18) until Luka Suljagic contributed the final 25-21 after missing out on a couple of set balls.
Everything was much easier after that. In the second set good serving and excellent blocking helped Montenegro dictate the tempo of the game (12:6, 19:13, and 25-20).
Romania totally ran out of fuel, also mentally, in the third set; Montenegro jumped out to an impressive lead (18:9) and finally celebrated a well-deserved win by sealing the final 25-16.
Aleksandar Milivojevic was the top scorer (14 points) of the day while his coach had the chance to rest him and some of his teammates for a while.
“I am very satisfied. It was an important game for us and we were able to bring it home. Now we will go to Finland to try to retain our second place in the group and get the chance to move to the third and last qualification round” said a happy head coach Ivan Joksimovic.
