Greece – team
Though Sweden had problems to find their rhythm and Greece wrapped it up in straight sets, it was nevertheless a very close game. The hosts were evidently still tired coming out of their five-setter with Norway the day before while on Saturday Greece had scored a speedy 3:0 win over Iceland.
“It is too bad that tonight we could not display the same quality and intensity we had showed with Norway on Saturday” Sweden’s outside hitter Erik Sundberg said. “We played with glowing hearts but it was not enough and it was evident that we hadn’t recovered from the previous game.”
Greece was paced by their superstar Mitar Tzourits who scored 18 points in the end.
“Though we lost this game we still feel like the winners of this weekend” Sundberg added. “As we started training together some weeks ago we felt like we were far away from a good condition but since then we have made an enormous progress and it feels good that we have qualified at least for the second round.”
Waiting for the top match starring Sweden and Greece, Norway opened Sunday’s program by scoring their first win in the tournament as they cruised past Iceland in three straight sets (25-13, 25-16, and 25-14). This victory is a small consolation for Norway that had turned into the revelation of the competition after suffering two tie-break defeats to Greece and Sweden in the past days. On the other hand, though they lost in straight sets, the players from Iceland displayed probably their best performance in Halmstad. With this result Norway and Iceland settle for third and fourth place in Pool E respectively thereby ending their World Championship campaign. Iceland will be playing next week in Luxembourg at the Games of the Small States of Europe (GSEE).
“Our games with Greece and Sweden were very much alike and even though we lost both, we did show our potential, quality and skills” Norway’s outside hitter Lars Frederik Tvinde said. “I have to thank the organizers here in Halmstad because everything was really well prepared, the gym, the logistics etc. We had a great time here and we look forward to our next competitions after taking our lessons from this tournament” he concluded.
To read more news from this competition click on World Championship – European Qualification M.
