Cuba beats Spain in FIVB's World Championships
Cuba ended Spain’s hopes of advancing to the semi-finals with a 3-1 (25-22, 15-25, 25-22, 25-22) victory on Tuesday in Pool Q.
Both teams looked a bit out of sorts in the first set as they stayed close, and exchanged the lead. Joandy Leal scored one of his 13 points with an ace to seal a three point victory for Cuba.
“It was a difficult game and they played a good match,” said Cuban captain, Robertlandy Simon Aties. “We fought a lot and this was very important for us. We achieved our goal, and we are pretty satisfied.”
With the loss, Spain finished last in Pool Q, and will now focus on the 9-12 classification phase in Florence. With a win they would have had a chance to advance to the semi-finals or the 5-8 phase at
the very least. With that in mind, Manuel Sevillano and Julian Garcia Torres spiked their way to a 25-15 victory in the second set to keep Spain’s hopes alive.
“We have played against a very difficult team and we managed to fight until the end point to point,” said Garcia Torres. “We didn’t succeed but in the second set we kept focused and we won it.”
Cuba finally got on track in the third set with a 25-22 victory powered by some excellent blocking, and steady serving. Spain still managed to keep it close, but they were no match for a focused Cuban
team.
Now down 2-1, Spain looked hungry for a victory in the fourth set, but tied 15-15 Cuba took charge, and the fourth set by a score of 25-22.
Iban Perez was Spain’s leading scored with 20 points, and Simon Aties lead all Cubans with 22 points. Cuba had three others in double digits. Much of Cuba’s victory can be attributed to the huge difference
in blocks, Cuba had 13 to Spain’s 4. Simon Aties finished with eight blocks himself.
“Congratulations to Cuba because they won a difficult match,” said Spain’s coach, Julio Velasco “It’s the second time we played at the same level as Cuba in a World Championship, and I’m proud of my players.
But we need to acquire more experience and more confidence in order to be ready for the next round.”
Bulgaria beat Spain in the first Pool Q matchup 3-1, and will face Cuba on Wednesday. The winner of that match will advance to the semi-finals and face Serbia, who clinched their place in the semi-finals
Tuesday with a win over Russia.
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