Serbia pumped, Spain dumped in European Olympic Qualifying match – Volleyball news
Aleksandar Atanasijevic charted 21 points and Milos Nikic added 19 as Serbia topped the Spanish team in four sets at the Arena Armeec competition hall in Sofia, Bulgaria on Thursday.
Serbs posted 3-1 (25-19, 25-17, 23-25, 25-22) victory over Spaniards and reserved a berth in the semi-finals. Head coach Igor Kolakovic gave a winning plan to his team, which was perfectly executed.
In the opening set of the match, scoring was extremely tight. Both teams came into a head-to-head competition and rallied hard from points. Serbia earned one-point advantage at the first technical timeout. Vlado Petkovic served with great power and helped
Serbia to keep the lead in hand.
Spanish libero and middle-blockers put up a valiant effort to save points but Serbia denied all their efforts. Spaniards trailed behind with two points at the second technical timeout. They could only score 19 points, while Serbia hit the mark with set points.
Carrying the same momentum, Serbia made a solid start to second set. They jumped out of the gate and quickly built four point lead. They locked the opponent behind the attack line and controlled the operations of the game. Atanasijevic added flurry of points
and put huge pressure on the rivals. Spaniards used different tactics but failed to come out of the blues. Eventually, Serbia extended its lead to 2-0 by claiming second frame.
Following the loss of two sets in row, Spain improved its performance in attack in third set and managed to break the tempo of Serbs. Spanish coach regrouped the players and his strategy seemed to work out. Serbia was not ready to give the game to Spain
and struggled to bounce back. However, Spain pulled up third-set win with narrow margin of two points.
Serbia trailed behind Spain up till the second technical timeout in fourth set but eventually returned in the game. Serbs closed fourth set with 25-22 and settled for 3-1 victory.
The match was followed by official press conference, where captains and coaches of both teams showed up and shared their views.
Serbia’s captain Bojan Janic said, “Congratulations for Spain! The team showed some brave volleyball today. On the other hand, we played much better than yesterday and deserved to win. I hope we will show our maximum tomorrow and get ready for the semifinals.”
His Spanish counterpart Guillermo Hernan Ruperez said that his team made too many mistakes and dropped the decision.
Winning Coach Igor Kolakovic was seemed totally satisfied the brilliant feat of his team He commented, “We had some problems in serving and reception in the second part of the game, but finished the match according to plan. We are expecting tomorrow's crucial
game and we hope to be here on Saturday.”
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