Belgium
The group mentored by head coach Emile Rousseaux had already pocketed a ticket for the final round of the 2012 CEV Junior Volleyball European Championship on Saturday and today they were able to stay focused once more to defeat a strong and ambitious Israeli side.
Belgium started really well pocketing the opening set (25-22) but relaxed a little too early so that the guys from Israel could go for the provisional 1:1 (18-25).
Belgium set the pace of the game for most of the time in the third set but Israel stormed back to draw level at 23 all before the guys from Brussels could score the next two to seal this section at 25-23.
Afterwards Belgium dominated the scene in set 4 going for a massive 25-12 to complete an already memorable campaign in Kharkiv.
The Netherlands finished second in the group – and thereby advanced to the next stage of the qualification process – after scoring a speedy 3:0 win on Sunday over Hungary. Only the second set of this game was balanced and there both sides had to fight for every single point, but finally the young “Oranjes” could pocket their pass for the third-round qualifiers slated for mid July by finishing it off in three sets (25-21, 25-23, and 25-19).
The Dutch are joined there by the hosts of Ukraine who finished their home campaign in third place after edging Croatia in straight sets on Sunday
The score line was pretty clear even though the home mentor decided to line up most of his reserve players for this match (25-21, 25-18, and 25-12).
