Defending #EuroLeagueM champs, Turkey top the charts in Pool C, Estonia first in Pool A
Recap
The Golden #EuroLeagueM action continued on Sunday, delivering nice actions across the Pools A and C, while the tournament in Pool B starts on June 1.
The fans following the competition live on EuroVolley.TV could enjoy two thrilling five-setters and very close fights in all remaining matches as well.
Pool A
Estonia top the charts in the current standings of Pool A after coming from 2 sets down to eventually grab a 3-2 victory vs Belgium. In a clash that lasted 126 minutes, and was a decisive match at the end of the first tournament in Tartu, the Estonian players showed nerves of steel and turned things in their favour.
Oliver Venno“It is difficult to say why our game was the way it was in the beginning. Maybe we were tired, we didn't have enough energy. It was nice that the ones who entered the court in the third set brought some freshness and turned things around.”
Opposite hitter of Estonia
Both Estonia and Belgium showed a very balanced game, and it was the more precise play in important moments that helped Estonia to take the victory and two points. Turning point was the third set when the players coached by Cedric Enard pushed hard on the attack and with 16 winning spikes disappointed Belgium. Setter Robert Viiber, opposite Oliver Venno, middle-blocker Andri Aganits and outside-hitter Albert Hurt entered the court in this part, with their performance changing the course of the match completely.
In the remainder of the match, both the Red Dragons led by Sam Deroo (24 points) and Estonia by Oliver Venno (23 points), were fighting for each ball, but it was the hosts of Estonia that congratulated themselves with the victory, with four blocks in the tiebreak the key to their success. The second tournament in Pool A starts on June 4 in Liepaja, Latvia.
Tomas Rousseaux“I think that in the end, it was a match of a good level. The fifth set was very close and then it's just a matter of a couple of smaller things for the final outcome. Estonia finished with an amazing serve on the line, that's a beautiful way to end a beautiful game. We are both ambitious and quite young teams with some older guys who support us.”
Outside-hitter of Belgium
Spain recorded their first victory in the 2021 edition of the Golden #EuroLeagueM. After two days of missing their luck, the Spanish players led by the inspired Augusto Renato Colito grabbed a victory and three points after beating Latvia 3-1. Even though the two teams showed equal skills in the different components, Spain remained more concentrated in the decisive moments while Latvia struggled with some unforced errors. Colito topped the charts for his team, recording 17 to his name, but it was Latvia's Kristaps Šmits who became Best Scorer of the match with 19 points.
Rubén Lorente Camacho"It was a big match for us. I think we were a little bit tired from yesterday's long match against Belgium. It was obvious that in certain moments, we were struggling, but we continued to fight as a team. I am very happy about how we played today."
Setter of Spain
Spain took the first two sets even though the Latvian players were pushing hard on the attack. The players coached by head coach Ricardo Maldonado had a bad moment on attack in the third set (with only 19% efficiency). However, Colito & Co. managed to remain focused in the last part and even though Latvia fought hard, Spain emerged victorious being more precise in the decisive moments.
Edvins Skruders"We made a lot of bad mistakes, especially in the first half of the game. And we lost too many points in service. Maybe in the decisive moments the opposite team had more luck than us.“
Setter of Latvia
Pool C
The defending #EuroLeagueM champions from Turkey didn't allow any surprises on Sunday, and with 16 kill blocks and 6 aces in the match vs Belarus, claimed a rather easy straight-sets victory. The fixture between both teams was a rematch of the Final in 2019, when Turkey grabbed the trophy with another 3-0 shutout.
On Sunday, the players coached by Nedim Özbey, outclassed the opponent on the block and on the serve, and while Belarus were better in the first two sets on attack, in the third one the Turkish players could control the game also in this element with 71% efficiency. With 5 blocks to his name in this match, Bedirhan Bülbül helped a lot to secure his team's victory, becoming Best Blocker. Yiğit Gülmezoglu topped the charts with 15 points to his name, recording 67% success rate in attack. For Belarus, Uladzislau Babkevich scored 13 times.
Czech Republic and Portugal delivered a great match in the first fixture for the day in Pool C. After 149 minutes of play in Minsk, the Portuguese players emerged victorious after a thrilling five-setter, full of nice rallies and many turnarounds.
Highly motivated, none of the teams were giving up, fighting for each ball, with the third set becoming a nail-biting battle that finished at 39-37 in favour of Portugal. Overall, both Czechia and Portugal showed equal skills (11 blocks and 4 aces each), with the team of Jiri Novak being slightly better on attack. However, the greater number of errors by the Czech players affected the final score. Marco Evan Ferreira of Portugal topped the charts with 25 points, while for the Czech team, Lukas Vasina was the best with 24.
This is the first victory at the competition for the team around head coach Hugo Silva.