Team Portugal sets sights on #EuroVolleyU20M Final Round

Team Portugal will be facing Switzerland, Israel and Germany in a 2^nd Round #EuroVolleyU20M qualifier coming up later this week on home soil in Viana do Castelo. The eventual winners of the pool will secure their participation in the Final Round scheduled for later this summer in Italy.

Team Portugal has prepared for the European qualifier through a number of sparring matches with VC Viana (a team from Division I of the Portuguese national league). Moreover, back in mid-March, Portugal claimed two wins from three matches with their neighbours from Spain – as they recorded a 3-2 win, followed by a 2-3 setback and a 3-1 success.

“The training matches, i.e. both those against Spain and, more recently, with VC Viana, were extremely important for us, because there was no time to work on the technical side of the game, since the players are busy with their respective clubs,” says head coach Nuno Pereira. “Thus, in planning the upcoming qualifier, we did work on the organisation of these friendly matches, so that the team would gain match routine. In this last week, we have been focusing our training more on our offensive organisation and on our transition, that is, service and block / defence. The games with the Spanish national team allowed us to assess our level of performance, which did improve over the course of the three matches. We still have to work on the players' chemistry, because they come from different clubs, different game models and even some athletes have contested only a very few matches.”

Portugal will start their campaign on home soil against Switzerland. “In this type of competition, it is essential to start well from Day 1, because the tournament is short and does not allow for any slips. The matchup against Switzerland is the most important of the qualifier, as it is the first. We do not have much information about Switzerland, because they did not participate in any international competitions recently, such as WEVZA championships and qualifiers for previous European Championships,” Pereira continues.

Israel will be Portugal’s second opponent. “To achieve direct qualification for the U20 European Championship Final Round is the main objective of our team. The goal is ambitious, I know. For now, we will be taking it one match at a time. We only think about Switzerland and we will not think about Israel and Germany. I also take this opportunity to ask all the people of Viana do Castelo and the Volleyball family to mobilise and come to support us to achieve our goal, i.e. to feature in the final stage of the U20 European Championship,” Pereira concludes.