At stake in Saturday’s first two matches on the schedule – the semi finals in the battle for distribution of places 5 – 8, will be the last two European vacancies for the 2013 FIVB Youth Volleyball World Championship in Mexico, as the top six teams in the final ranking of the European Championship will earn tickets for Mexicali and Tijuana. With this in mind, Italy will face France in the first clash at the splendid competition hall in Laktaši on Saturday at 12:30 CET and Turkey will test out Austria soon after, at 15:00 CET.
The coaches of the four participants in these two games made some statements before the launch of their battles for World Championship qualification.
Andrea Tomasini, head coach of Italy: ”We expect a very though match. We hope that we will be strong enough to win and qualify for the World Championship in Mexico. This certainly will not be easy but we will give our best.“
Slimane Belmadi, head coach of France: ”Although the next game will be significantly harder than all that we have played so far, I think we are ready for it. Our team is inspired and motivated to win and we hope that we will succeed.”
Ali Kazım Hidayetoğlu, head coach of Turkey: “Austria is a very though rival. We are happy that we passed to the next round. Our next goal is to be in top six teams on the championship. We sincerely hope that we will succeed in the match against Austria.”
Nina Sawatzki, head coach of Austria: ”We are sure that the next game will be very hard, but we do believe that we could win and be in top 5 on this championship. Our team will definitely show its best performance in next two matches, let’s hope that our results will show that.”
To read more news from this competition click on Youth European Championship 2013 M.