Czechs ended without win, Serbia and Germany are in semifinals, Croatia is out of the game
News
Friday at the European Under-17 Championship began with a match between Germany and Croatia. The Germans allowed their opponents to lead only at the beginning of the match, they controlled the rest of the first set and won it 25:22. The second set was more even, but Germany was still better, and they led 2:0 for the sets.
In the third set Germans led 22:17, but Croatian players got back into game and score was even. Finally, Germany thanks to Grozer’s serves won third set so far.
Paulina Ströh“It was really hard today, I think we played as a team, it was very hard in mention. I think we played better together than Croatia in the first two sets.”
Germany Captain and setter
Tonka Bošnjak"I think we didn't show what we can do, our defense wasn't good. We weren't brave enough and we didn't take risks when we lost points, we fell down, and it was over."
Croatia Captain and Outside Hitter
In the second match of the day, The Netherlands played against Serbia. Dutch team was fighting for semifinals, but Serbia dominated from the first minutes. Score was even, 4:4, but then Serbian players got eight points in a row and won first set easily, 25:13. The second won was even up to score 13:13, then Serbia started lead again, and won the second set 25:20.
The third set was under Serbian control from the beginning and Dutch players absolutely didn’t have chance, they lost the game 0:3 and they will not play for medals on U17 European championship 2022.
Sonja Danilovic. “It was very important game for us, because now we first team in our group with no loses. Our team was giving maximum into the match and I’m really proud of the girls.”
Serbia Outside Hitter
In the last game in the pool I, Czech Republic played against Bulgaria. It was last game for home players because they didn’t have to chance to continue in championship, but Bulgaria had it. Czech players made a lot of mistakes, they didn’t serve good, they bad in attacks and lost the first set 14:25. The second set was really tense. Even though Czechs lost seven points, they woke up and score was even 14:14. The end of the set was very dramatic, Bulgaria didn’t agree with some decisions of the referees, they didn’t play as well as in the first set, but finally they won it 25:23.
The third set looked like second one in the halfway, score was 14:15, but then Bulgaria scored with six points in the row and won also the third set. Thanks to it, they are staying in the tournament and Czech Republic ended championship without win.
Margarita Guncheva"It was a very important match for us because we had to win to stay in the tournament. It wasn't as difficult as we thought, we had some problems in the second set, some decisions of the referees weren't quite fair. But we wanted to show the best."
Bulgaria Captain and Setter
