VK Lvi PRAHA - C.S. Arcada GALATI

• The first set was very even, as neither team had a problem both with reception and on the attack. One small mistake by the Romanian giant Talpa at the net in the end decided the set in favor of the Lions (25:23).
• In the second set, thanks to several good blocks and an ace by the middle blocker Pablo Crer, the home team took a quick lead 8:4 and Arcada’s coach reached for the first time out. The Lions held a few-point cushion throughout the whole set and won the second set without any problems (25:23).
• As time went on and the number of mistakes increased in the third set, the Arcade players became increasingly frustrated with the negative development of the match (25:15).

VK Lvi PRAHA

• Jakub Janouch (captain of VK Lvi Praha): "I have nothing to say, it is absolutely unreal. It is maybe more than winning the Czech Championship. I am having a hard time finding words, I was almost in tears. Going back a few months, when the group was drawn, we knew that on paper we had a chance. Of course, the teams were 50-50 in my eyes. We knew we had a good team, but the key was to show it on the court. It was unreal in all the matches and I'm incredibly proud of our team. It's something special. We don't get medals for it, we don't get millions flowing into our cash desk like in football, but the feeling is just incredible. There will now be 12 of the best teams in Europe in the pool and we will be among them. I believe that we will fill the house again, the crowd will cheer us on, and it doesn't matter who we are up against. We will try to fight as we have been fighting so far and then we will see."
• Juan Manuel Barrial (coach of VK Lvi Praha): For me we played one perfect match from beginning until the end. We were completely focused and deserved to go into next round because we played all matches very very good with the only exception in Bucharest (RO). Today we showed our power and I think we wrote history because I don’t know when was the last time that a Czech team went among the best twelve teams in Europe. I am really happy not only for myself but for the whole club."

C.S. Arcada GALATI

• Iulian Marian Bala (captain of Arcada Galati): "I think Prague served a little bit better than us, they were better in defense. They also played really well in transition. We couldn’t handle the end of the first two sets and that cost us."
• Sergiu Stancu (coach of Arcada Galati): "There are many things that didn’t work as we expected today. We basically had our chances in the first two sets, unfortunately we did some errors that are not acceptable at this level. Our block defense did not work so good, normally it is our weapon. We had several situations where we should have scored or dig the ball. In the end we didn’t perform as we wanted and a better team won today."