Serbian Coach Igor Kolakovic tips Italy for Olympic ticket – Volleyball News
The men’s national volleyball team of Serbia dropped its second match of the third round to Italy in four sets. Serbia went up against Italy on Monday, November 28, in Hamamatsu, Japan. The Italian squad posted a 3-1 (25-20, 25-18, 22-25, 25-20) victory
over Serbia and scored their second straight win in the third round of the 2011 FIVB Men’s Volleyball World Cup.
Serbian team played under the guidance of Head Coach, Igor Kolakovic, who regretted the loss of the important match in the tournament. Nonetheless, he praised the wonderful effort of the Italian team and wished them luck for further progress.
In his post-match comments, Kolakovic said: “First I would like to congratulate the Italian team. I hope they can go to the Olympic Games. It was a great game for our younger players to experience. I don’t like how we played the first two sets, but after
that we started to think about how we scored each point, not about the victory. We deserved one set, and I’m very satisfied with that.”
Serbian skipper, Ivan Miljkovic, shared the similar thoughts about the match and about Italian counterparts. He said: “The Serbian team put up a good resistance in this game. It was a good experience. Italy is among best teams in the world and playing them
is a great experience for these young players.”
Italy’s Lasko Michal was the real highlight of the match. He topped all the scorers with match-high 25 points via 21 successful attack-attempts, three blocks and a service ace. Rest of the Italian players scored single-digit points but actively participated
in the match. On contrary, Serbian team had two players who went into double-digit scores. Aleksandar Atanasijevic and Uros Kovacevic supported Serbia with 20 and 15 points, respectively.
Italy made a good start into the match. They staged good action on the court and secured first two sets of the match, 25-22, 25-18. Serbia realized its mistakes in third set and hit back strongly. The better attack strategy and hard work of Serbs allowed
them to take away third set of the match with three points, 25-22. The happiness was short-lived as Italy bounced back in the game in fourth set and put an end to the match. They captured final set (25-20) and seized victory.
Italy will return to action on Tuesday in the final match of third round. They are scheduled to take on Argentina. Italians are enjoying a great rhythm after scoring two straight victories in the third round. There is a probability that they will carry the
momentum in next match and will beat Argentina. On the other hand, Serbia will also play its third match of the round. They have tough match ahead of them as defending champion Brazil will be playing against Serbia.
Brazil is already infuriated with the loss of its previous match to Cuban team and they will be tough on Serbia. Brazil has great fan-following in the city of Hamamatsu and it has more chances of winning the match.
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