Serbia – Russia
In the last match in Pool II, the departing European champions Serbia faced Russia. The only unbeaten team of the pool remained with a perfect record by defeating the co-hosts of the championship by 3:1 (28:30, 25:16, 26:24, 28:26). Russia’s Victor Poletaev topped the scorers’ chart with 28 points, including 4 blocks. The best ones in the losing side were Luka Velickovic and Miodrag Milutinov with 17 points each.
Before the start of the match, Jury Secretary of the European Championship Aloys Fischer from Switzerland presented Nenad Golijanin, First Vice President of the Volleyball Federation of Serbia, with a special CEV plaque for the successful organization of the tournament.
As there was nothing at stake in this game, both teams were fairly relaxed. The coaches used this opportunity to shuffle the cards a little bit and let some of the players from the bench to step in. In a friendly atmosphere, both sides were pretty loose. The fans in the stands could see some really nice moves by both teams, and they enjoyed it very much. However, the home side had an extra motive as they were playing for the honor and the first victory of the championship. Because of that, the first set went deeply into extra time. In the end, Serbia snatched it by 30:28.
In the second set Russia came back with a vengeance. They absolutely dominated throughout the whole time and deservedly equalized the score in sets winning by 25:16.
The third set was conducted in the same fashion as the first one. The teams were close from the beginning until the end, only this time Russia was a bit luckier in the end and won by 26:24 for 2:1 in sets.
The fourth set was all about Serbia. The home side put pressure on Russia right from the start, and that resulted in a convincing 16:9 lead at the second technical time-out. However, by the end of the set Russia managed to close in and reach the tie at 23:23. After an exciting finish, Russia’s strongest weapon, which is the impenetrable block, ended the competition for Serbia at 26:28.
Alexander Karikov, head coach of Russia: “My team was too relaxed today and I do not like that. On the other hand, Serbia looked very nice. I have to talk to my players, because we are a strong team and we are confident, but yet we have to prove it on the court as well.“
Milan Djuricic, head coach of Serbia: “If we had played like this, things would have been different for sure. We missed our chances. Even today we could have won by 3:1, but we were a bit unlucky as well. That is it for us. As for Russia, I really do hope they win the championship and I wish them all the best in the final phase.“
Maxim Troynin, blocker in the Russian team: “It was a very difficult match. We wanted to win, but Serbia played very well today. I think we were lucky to win this match. We have to think about the mistakes we made, and try to do a lot better in the semi finals.“
Luka Velickovic, receiver in the Serbian team: “We were relaxed, especially in the first set, and that is why we won this part of the match. Later on, we became a little bit anxious and unfortunately we could not wrap it up.“
To read more news from this competition click on Youth European Championship 2013 M.
