Slovakia start on the right foot in the Golden #EuroLeagueM

Only one Golden #EuroLeagueM match was scheduled for Wednesday, but the excitement that the competing teams brought to the court, inspired the fans watching it live on EuroVolley.TV.

Romania and Slovakia met for a fixture in Pool B of the tournament taking place in Ukraine, delivering a real derby, that lasted more than 2 hours and left wide open the question of who was going to emerge victorious until the very last minute of the game. As it resulted, the Slovak players showed better nerves in the decisive moments and after losing the first and the third set, found the strength to grab 2 points after a tie-break. On the road to the success, the Slovak team recorded 15 kill blocks which turned out to be the key for the victory, given the 8 aces by Romania.  Filip Gavenda of Slovakia and Rares Ionut Balean of Romania topped the charts, each one of them scoring 29 points. 

- From the very beginning of the match, it was clear that both teams would put up a real fight on the net. The first set set the tone for an exciting Volleyball party. Romania's Robert Adrian Aciobanitei was giving his best helping his team to emerge victorious.
- The players around Sergiu Stancu pushed hard on the serve in the next part, but Slovakia responded with 4 blocks and tied the score.
- In the third set, the Slovak players recorded the same number of blocks, but this time the Romanians were even better on the serve and with 4 aces, got closer to the victory.
- The fourth set was a cat-and-mouse game, with both teams constantly exchanging the lead. It seemed, however, that in the last minutes, the Slovak team would close easily (24-19 in their favour) but it was Romania's Balean good performance that made things difficult for the Slovak reception. However, despite his good play, Slovakia could claim the set and brought the match into tie-break.
- In the decisive part, Slovakia dominated on attack (43% efficiency on the winning spikes) and could claim the victory.