Finland – Serbia
This match was the last call also for Finland that had also lost two matches and the “Suomis” opened with a good pace (7:2), before Serbian star Uros Kovacevic finally found his way into the game (8:6). Serbia eventually flipped the score around going up 12:11 and gradually opened the gap well powered by Kovacevic (20:15). Some mistakes by the Serbian defense line helped Finland come closer in the score (20:18) and after a tie at 22, Sinisa Zarkovic finished it off at 26-24.
Serbia started out strong also in set 2 (8:6, 10:6) and with their great spikes and blocks the “Plavi” were able to sail away (16:7); on the other side of the net, Finland was all mistakes and a block by Aleksandar Okolic contributed the final, impressive 25-10.
Finland knew they had nothing but to go for a mission impossible in set 3 and they eventually surprised their opponents with good blocks to go to the front (10:6, 14:8); Tommi Siirilä was particularly effective for the Finns and the “Suomis” ultimately cruised to a 25-14 that totally reversed the outcome of the previous set.
The Finns stretched that momentum also to the early phases of the fourth set (7:3) before Serbia clawed back and went ahead in the score with a spike by Kovacevic (14:12). Elviss Krastins scored three for Finland to make it 16:15 for his opponents at the second technical time-out but after that Serbia changed the pace with Brdovic, Kovacevic and Stankovic going for the 25-21 that sealed their 3-1 win.
