As it was expected, the two pre-favorite teams managed to qualify for the final round of the 2010 FIVB Men’s World Championship after two days of competition at the tournament being currently staged in Kragujevac. This afternoon Spain had to go all the way through up to the fifth set to beat a promising Romanian team 3-2 (25-17, 23-25, 21-25, 27-25, 15-13), and Serbia easily broke the Estonian defense to win 3-0 (25-15, 25-23, 25-22) in front of 3100 spectators at the “Jezero” Hall of Sports.
The reigning European champions of Spain had to dig deep to overcome all sort of problems that the Romanian team put in front of them, but at the end they managed to complete the mission of having two victories in the first two competition days. Right from the start, the Spanish team imposed their rhythm and during the first set the Romanians never came close to even think that this first section of the match might have been within their reach. However, in the second set, the Romanian team managed to equilibrate the situation on the court and the teams reached the second technical time-out playing point-by-point (16:15 for Spain). Both teams continued to struggle up to 23:23, when two mistakes from the Spanish side helped the Romanians to tie the match at 1 set for both. In the third set, Romania completed their comeback and kept the convincing lead throughout the whole distance. In the fourth set, the Spanish team showed their fighting spirit and they went to the first technical time-out leading at 8:7. At the second break, the Spanish lead got less narrow (16:14). Romania managed to tie the count at 25:25, but two consecutive points by the Spanish side brought this match to the tie-break. In the deciding fifth set, Spain immediately took control of the operations, but risked 3 match points before being able to finish the match at 15:13.
Legendary Julio Velasco, Spanish head coach commented: “It was hard and we knew that, because Romania is a very good team, and they improved a lot this year. Again, we had problems in reception, but I’m glad that we managed to recover in the fourth and fifth set”.
Romanian mentor Stelian Moculescu added: “It was a good game, unfortunately we lost, but what can you do. Congratulations to the Spanish team. We had a good chance of winning 3:1, we missed it, and life goes on”.
The host team of Serbia started the match against Estonia with a strong will to perform well this evening. Right from the start, the Serbian team got a comfortable lead and it only got bigger by the end of the set. In the first set, the host team left only 15 points to their rivals. In the second set, the crowd in the “Jezero” Hall of Sports did see a real evenly matched clash, because the Estonians significantly raised their level of play. However, they didn’t have enough strength to push it until the end, so the hosts edged out their rivals 25:23. In the third set, Serbia was too strong once again and brought this match to a closure without any problems. The final result was 3:0 (25:15, 25:23, 25:22) for the home side.
Serbian coach Igor Kolakovic: “This is a very important result for us, we played with Romania and Estonia, and you could see that they raised their level of game significantly in recent times, even though they are not among the best European teams. Tonight we won with ease, the result is showing clearly the difference, we started to show off a little bit in the second set, but the Estonian team warned us right away that we should be getting back in track. I think we played very well, and I’m glad I had the opportunity to introduce some players who haven’t had a chance to play in this tournament. We qualified for the World Championship and we are very happy with this result”.
Estonian coach Avo Keel concluded: “Serbia was the favorite team before the start of the tournament and they deserved this victory. I’m glad we had a chance to play with such strong teams and to prepare as much as we can for the upcoming European Championship. This is a good experience for us and I hope we will learn from our mistakes”.
The reigning European champions of Spain had to dig deep to overcome all sort of problems that the Romanian team put in front of them, but at the end they managed to complete the mission of having two victories in the first two competition days. Right from the start, the Spanish team imposed their rhythm and during the first set the Romanians never came close to even think that this first section of the match might have been within their reach. However, in the second set, the Romanian team managed to equilibrate the situation on the court and the teams reached the second technical time-out playing point-by-point (16:15 for Spain). Both teams continued to struggle up to 23:23, when two mistakes from the Spanish side helped the Romanians to tie the match at 1 set for both. In the third set, Romania completed their comeback and kept the convincing lead throughout the whole distance. In the fourth set, the Spanish team showed their fighting spirit and they went to the first technical time-out leading at 8:7. At the second break, the Spanish lead got less narrow (16:14). Romania managed to tie the count at 25:25, but two consecutive points by the Spanish side brought this match to the tie-break. In the deciding fifth set, Spain immediately took control of the operations, but risked 3 match points before being able to finish the match at 15:13.
Legendary Julio Velasco, Spanish head coach commented: “It was hard and we knew that, because Romania is a very good team, and they improved a lot this year. Again, we had problems in reception, but I’m glad that we managed to recover in the fourth and fifth set”.
Romanian mentor Stelian Moculescu added: “It was a good game, unfortunately we lost, but what can you do. Congratulations to the Spanish team. We had a good chance of winning 3:1, we missed it, and life goes on”.
The host team of Serbia started the match against Estonia with a strong will to perform well this evening. Right from the start, the Serbian team got a comfortable lead and it only got bigger by the end of the set. In the first set, the host team left only 15 points to their rivals. In the second set, the crowd in the “Jezero” Hall of Sports did see a real evenly matched clash, because the Estonians significantly raised their level of play. However, they didn’t have enough strength to push it until the end, so the hosts edged out their rivals 25:23. In the third set, Serbia was too strong once again and brought this match to a closure without any problems. The final result was 3:0 (25:15, 25:23, 25:22) for the home side.
Serbian coach Igor Kolakovic: “This is a very important result for us, we played with Romania and Estonia, and you could see that they raised their level of game significantly in recent times, even though they are not among the best European teams. Tonight we won with ease, the result is showing clearly the difference, we started to show off a little bit in the second set, but the Estonian team warned us right away that we should be getting back in track. I think we played very well, and I’m glad I had the opportunity to introduce some players who haven’t had a chance to play in this tournament. We qualified for the World Championship and we are very happy with this result”.
Estonian coach Avo Keel concluded: “Serbia was the favorite team before the start of the tournament and they deserved this victory. I’m glad we had a chance to play with such strong teams and to prepare as much as we can for the upcoming European Championship. This is a good experience for us and I hope we will learn from our mistakes”.
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