Latvia and Hungary to play in the final of Silver #EuroLeagueM
Recap
The last semifinal match of the Men’s CEV Volleyball European Silver League took place on a Saturday evening and now we know that Latvia will fight for the trophy against Hungary.
The national teams of Cyprus and Hungary played their first semifinal match on Wednesday and Cyprus was in a much better position of going through to the semifinals since they won over Hungary by 3-1. Hungary, flying on the wings of its amazing fans, managed to turn things around in their favor and qualified for the finals!
The match ended 3-1 (25-13, 25-16, 25-27, 25-16) and the score was equalized to 4-4 in total after two matches, so the final set of 15 points was needed and it was Hungary with 15-12 who took the place in the final!
Hungary started confidently in the first set with 8-3 on the scoreboard and they continued to keep the advantage. There wasn’t much Cyprus could have done to break the Hungarian dominance and therefore they jumped on a ten-point difference (18-8). They closed the set by 25-13.
The confidence and dominance on the Hungarian side continued in the second set as well. They knew that they needed to take three sets in order to stay in the game and take their place in the final. Again, they had a nice advantage on the scoreboard (5-2, later 13-6) and were heading into winning yet another set. They managed to do so by 25-16.
In the third set, Cyprus showed why they are in the finals. After all, they won their first match by 3-1, so of course, going into the finals was a must-task for them. Hungary opened the set with a lead but Cyprus managed to equalize and their mini-series of scoring began (from 7-7 to 7-11). They went into the five-point lead (9-14) and Hungary was then slowly coming back into the game. They got to 17-18 and managed to equalize (18-18). Up until the end of the set, it was a real nail-biter but in the end, it was Cyprus who took the set win and spiced things up completely.
Hungary turned things around in the fourth set and won it by 25-16 so the additional set of 15 points was needed. This set was going to decide who is going to take the place in the big final against Latvia. In the end it was Hungary that took the win by 15-12 and secured the spot in the final!
What's next?
The first final match will take place next Thursday, the 6th of July, and the second final match will take place on the 9th of July when we will know who is taking home the trophy! You can catch all the actions live on EuroVolley.TV.