Slovakia – Finland
In the first set the crowd in Arilje saw a very interesting match. Slovakia got off to an early lead, but the Finns managed to narrow the gap by the end of the set and equalize at 22:22. The teams played point-for-point until 26:26 when Finland managed to score two points in a row for the final 28-26 and 1:0 in sets.
The first part of the second set was very similar to the previous one. Slovakia started better, but Finland slowly but surely narrowed the gap and ultimately took over the lead. At 20:16 for Finland, Slovakia’s head coach Miroslav Palgut had to ask for a time-out. The Slovaks quickly tied the score at 20:20, and moved on to take a 22:21 lead. After a very intense final rush of the set, this time Slovakia was lucky enough to win it at 28-26.
The third set did not change the story much but the Finns were more focused wrapping it up at 27-25 to take a 2:1 lead.
In the fourth set Slovakia was determined to equalize once again. They went firmly ahead, keeping a good margin. However, as Slovakia was leading the way at 21:16, Finland started to close the gap. They managed to tie the score at 24:24, but the Slovaks did not panic. After a couple of missed set points, they finally forced the tie-breaker winning the fourth set at 28-26.
Slovakia started better the fifth set, but Finland managed to recover by the time teams changed sides of the net (8:7 to Slovakia). However, after that the Slovaks got off to a 4-point lead (12:8), and then stormed to a 15-8 to book their first victory in the tournament.
Miroslav Palgut, head coach of Slovakia: “Of course, I am satisfied with this victory. We played fine today, and overall I can say that we are performing well in this tournament. We were leading the pack for most of the game, but in the final stages we tend to lose our focus. However, I am telling my players that it is very important to fight until the end, and they did so in the fourth and the fifth set”.
Adam Prielozny, captain of Slovakia: “It was a very tight match. We won a couple of sets by a very close margin and we are very happy with this victory because we fought until the very end and we prevailed”.
Pekka Lahtinen, head coach of Finland: “We were not playing well, especially our setter. Our second setter is injured and we could not make any changes. We offered them too many chances in this match and they used it. The only good thing is that we managed to win two sets”.
Mauri Kurppa, captain of Finland: “We were not prepared enough for this kind of match. We attacked poorly, and we lacked focus. That is something we have to work on in the future”.
To read more news from this competition click on 2013 FIVB Volleyball Men’s U21 World Championship – European Qualification.
