Spain take the last available ticket to the eighthfinals of EuroVolley 2019! In their last match of the pool stage, they mastered a four-set victory over Germany to advance to the last 16, sending Slovakia at home. Villena was the top scorer of the match with 20 points, while Simon Hirsch scored 15 for Germany.
Fernando Muñoz Benitez – Coach of Spain:
“We played a strong technical and tactical game. Some situations we handled very well, like sideout percentage. Scoring on defence was lots harder. I am happy we won the game.”
Julian Zenger – Libero of Germany:
“It wasn’t because of the five games in six days why we lost. We found answers to the power of Spain, but not to the key points during the sets and that made the difference.”
Serbia won the last match in Pool B in straight sets over Austria to finish the pool unbeaten in five matches. So, Austria were forced to conclude their participation in EuroVolley 2019 without any victory. Even though Serbia started the match without key players, such as Aleksandar Atanasijevic, Marko Podrascanin, Srecko Lisinac and Uros Kovacevic, coach Slobodan Kovač’s team had no problems. Liburic was the best on the winning side with 18 points, of which three aces, even if Zass was the overall best scorer of the match with 20 points, including three winning blocks and two aces.
Nikola Pekovic – Libero of Serbia:
“We played very well today and in the pool as a whole. We feel we deserve the first place and hope to win over Czech Republic to progress to the quarterfinals.”
Maximilian Thaller – Setter of Austria:
“We played well today and had some chances. In two years we will be back to achieve our goals at the next EuroVolley.”
Source and Photos: CEV.