Serbia defeats France by 3-1 to reach semi-final: 2011 CEV Volleyball European Championship
The second quarter-final match of the 2011 CEV Volleyball European Championship
took place at the Wiener Stadthalle in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic, and was a nail biting affair as both Serbia and France fought hard for a place in the semi-finals of the tournament. The match went on for four tantalizing sets with the end favouring
the Serbians as winners by 3-1.
The first set of the match saw quite a few tie breaks but the team that lasted longer was Serbia. The second set saw a good fight from the French but the Serbians were able to threaten a sweep by also bagging the second set. A two set deficit got the French
revved up and they stepped up their game to take the match to a fourth set. Despite a hard effort from the French, the Serbians proved to be the better team as they grabbed the win at the following final set scores: 32-30, 25-20, 23-25 and 26-24.
The opening set of the game saw the Serbians struggle on the court a bit, something that the French took advantage of to move up and take the lead at 16-12. The Serbians were not doing so well in terms of blocking and let their opponents grab an advantage.
However, the match got into a tie position at 17-17 and stayed tight all through to the end and reached some intense set points before the Serbians finally bagged the first set at 32-30.
In the second set, the Serbians focused their blocking on the most active scorer of the French squad, Earvin Ngapeth. This helped a great deal to reduce the French pace. With the French attack weakened in such a manner, the Serbians were able to have a much
easier time. Once they had the lead in the middle of the set, they did not let go of the advantage until Serbia reached the set end at 25-20.
The French were able to get the lead at 12-9 in the third set but the Serbians eventually caught up at 22-20. However, the French did not flinch and secured the third set at 25-23. The fourth set went neck to neck throughout and was tied at 24-24 but it
was the Serbians who got to hit the final ball home and get a win at 26-24.
The player that was able to lead all scorers belonged to the Serbian squad. Ivan Miljkovic tallied the highest number of points in the match by scoring 29 of them while the player that was most active on the French squad was Antonin Rouzier with a total
of 25 points.
The recent win will take Serbia into the semi-final of the championship where they will be facing the Russian squad.
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