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Portugal made far too many unforced errors in the first set and logically lost. Slovenia’s Eva Zatkovic scored the 25-21 winner with a kill block. In the second set, the Portuguese reduced the mistakes and stepped up the offence to open up a wide gap, extending it to 10 points at 17-7. However, the Slovenian blocking started delivering in the money time and the home team came back to within one, denying three set points in a row before Portuguese captain Marta Hurst finally converted the fourth one to a 25-23 win.

It was Portugal’s turn to catch up in the third set. And they did. They recovered from a five-point deficit to draw level in the first half of the set, but were once again four behind at 19-23 just before the epilogue. They evened it at 23-23, but Slovenia’s Mirta Velikonja Grbac pulled the plug on them with a spike and a block towards a 25-23 close. The fourth set was all about the home side. In the end it was once again Velikonja Grbac who finished it off at 25-16 with a kill block, her seventh in the match.

Three players, Slovenia’s Eva Zatkovic and Portugal’s Ana Vale and Marta Hurst, shared the top scorer honours of the match with 13 points each.

Gregor Rozman, head coach of Slovenia: “It is not easy to regroup after a defeat. That is why I am even happier that today we found our focus and despite some bad moments in the second set we returned to the game, stood up against a good team of Portugal and claimed the win.”

Mirta Velikonja Grbac, middle blocker of Slovenia: “It was hard at the beginning of the game due to yesterday’s loss, but I am very proud that my team fought till the end. We did not give up, because we deserved this third place and I am very happy that we made it.”

Marta Hurst, outside hitter and captain of Portugal: “We are a very young team, a group composed of new players. We are still in the process. We made it through a very strong pool stage and grew with every match. Today, I think we did not manage to withstand the pressure. That is what we need for the future. We need to keep working, play more difficult games and with time we will gain more experience for the matches like this.”