After losing all three games at the start of EuroVolley, Greece have finally felt some joy as they downed Romania in four sets in Pool A in Montpellier (France). Greece are now closer to qualification. After a very tight match, Greece eventually prevailed, expecially thanks to outside-hitter Athanasios Protopsaltis and his 20 points. Romania put up a great fight but could not manage to close out sets 1 and 3, and fell quickly behind in set 4. Greece took a great performance today, towards grabbing the fourth qualifying ticket for the knock-out phase. However Portugal, and even Romania, can still take it. It will all be decided in the next two days with their two remaining matchups with Portugal.

Athanasios Protopsaltis – Greece’s outside hitter
“We put up a great fight as a team. We knew it would be tight, but we eventually won that one. It was a final for us, and we’ll have another final against Portugal tomorrow.”

France destroy Bulgaria in straight sets, thus assured to place at least second in Pool A. In front of a rich crowd, France continued to stage brilliant performances at the 2019 EuroVolley. The victory ensures France one of the first two places in the pool ahead of a derby against Italy on the last day of the Preliminary Round. This was Bulgaria’s first defeat in the tournament, while France have a perfect record (4-0) and remained the only team that did not concede a set. Julien Lyneel was the best on the winning side with 19 points (79% attack – 15/19). Kévin Le Roux added 4 aces, while Earvin Ngapeth played his first match at EuroVolley as an outside hitter (he debuted as libero, a few days ago). Tsvetan Sokolov scored 10 points for Bulgaria, while Svetoslav Gotsev set up 4 winning blocks. Recall that Pool A will cross Pool C, occurring in Ljubljana, where Russia, Slovenia, Finland, Turkey, Belarus, and North Macedonia are facing each other.

Stephen Boyer – France’s opposite:
“It was a bit hard to play three matches in a row, but we rested to be fully loaded for this particular game that was crucial for the ranking. I do not think they play at the level tonight but our victory was really efficient.”

2019 CEV European Volleyball Championhip, pool stage – Day 5:

POOL A (Montpellier, France)
Romania – Greece 1-3 (25:23, 24:26, 25:27, 21:25)
France – Bulgaria 3-0 (25:19, 25:21, 25:14)

POOL B (Brussels & Antwerp, Belgium)
Austria – Germany 0-3 (23:25, 15:25, 16:25)
Spain – Serbia 1-3 (25:21, 19:25, 19:25, 20:25)

POOL C (Ljubljana, Slovenia)
Russia – Finland 3-0 (25:17, 26:24, 25:22)
Belarus – North Macedonia 1-3 (25:23, 19:25, 27:29, 20:25)

POOL D (Rotterdam & Amsterdam, the Netherlands)
Montenegro – Ukraine 1-3 (25:19, 18:25, 15:25, 19:25)
Poland – Czech Republic 3-0 (25:18, 25:12, 25:15)

Source and photos: CEV

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Graphic and collaborator for www.random-times.com From Sofia, Bulgaria. Despite my 31years old, I lived in 8 different countries. While I write, I explore the world, I watch movies and fall down the stairs. View all posts by Ivan