Bulgaria celebrate second triumph, Austria still in contention for ticket to #EuroVolleyU18W
News
Team Austria emerged victorious from their second match of the #EuroVolleyU18W qualifiers on Friday evening. The hosts did not leave a chance to Denmark at the Landessportzentrum VIVA in Steinbrunn, where they cruised to a comprehensive 3-0 (25-14, 25-22, 25-17) victory. As a result, head coach Stefan Spirk’s team can still make it to the European Championship scheduled for July 1-13 in Romania and Greece. On Saturday, Austria will clash with tournament favourites Bulgaria, who have not lost a single set in their two games this far.
Stefan Spirk“We managed the turnaround and achieved the victory we hoped for. My team played very well today and found good solutions even in difficult situations. Unfortunately, we could not do so yesterday against Lithuania (1-3).”
Head coach of Team Austria
“We had some good moments. However, it is disappointing that we were not able to win the second set. We made too many simple mistakes after taking the lead. We must do better tomorrow against Lithuania,” Denmark’s head coach Martin Collins explained.
Later in the evening, the Bulgarians secured their second formidable win, celebrating a 3-0 (25-17, 25-19, 25-18) success over Lithuania. Therefore, they confirmed their status of tournament favourites in Steinbrunn. “Lithuania is a team that plays good Volleyball. That is why we are happy to have recorded another comfortable victory,” said Bulgaria’s head coach and Volleyball legend Antonina Zetova after the second matchup of the day.
The winners of the five second-round qualifiers plus the four runners-up with the best result across all five pools will qualify for the Final Round of this year’s #EuroVolleyU18W.