France, despite astonishing support by Polish audience, defeats host after 4 sets. This win is the key for direct place in Quarterfinals. Second match is also superb, Slovakia after tiebreak conquers Turkey.
FRANCE – POLAND 3-1 (25-22 25-23 20-25 25-20)
Line-ups and scores:
France: Toniutti (1), Lyneel (14), Le Roux (9), Rouzier (16), N’gapeth (15), Hardy-Dessources (1), Grebennikov (L) and Le Goff (4), Tillie (2), Sidibe (3), Redwitz
Poland: Żygadło, Winiarski (12), Możdżonek (1), Jarosz (4), Kurek (20), Nowakowski (9), Zatorski (L) and Ruciak, Bociek (9), Wiśniewski (6)
Poland started game with nice serve by Marcin Możdżonek and nice spike from Bartosz Kurek. France answered for it with middle spike by Kevin Le Roux. France had little advantage (11-9), but lost it thanks to strong serve and hard kills by Poles. “White and reds” led at second technical time out (12-16). Unyielding performance by “Les bleus” led to tie (18-18). Weak performance by opposite Jakub Jarosz and block on Kurek helped France to take control in first set (22-20). An ace made by outside hitter Earvin N’gapeth ended first set (25-22).
Poor performance by Poland forced Poles’ coach Andrea Anastasi to change opposite, Jarosz left court, while Grzegorz Bociek subbed him. Successful spikes by France gave them lead (8-5). Poland made numerous mistakes, what helped France even more. Leader was N’gapeth, France led 16-12. Instead of Możdżonek on court appeared Łukasz Wiśniewski. Poland decreased behind (23-22), but it didn’t help much mostly because of weak serves. One from these errors, made by Bociek gave France second set (25-23).
Wiśniewski and Bociek stayed for third set. Beginning gave hope for Poland (3-6), by Polish side finally appeared block, which gave them much against Turkey. Nice presented Bociek and Kurek. French coach, Laurent Tillie made some substitutes, on court appeared his, son Kevin. Poland had quite comfortable advantage (11-16). By French side we saw double substitution, with Rafael Redwitz and Mory Sidibe, replacing Antonin Rouzier and Benjamin Toniutti, however it didn’t give anything. Kurek and Bociek still dominated, Wiśniewski joined to them with nice blocking performance. Poland won third set, after serve mistake made by N’gapeth (20-25).
Start of set was quite equal, until Poles lost three points in a row (7-5). Poland lost all trumps and made many simple mistakes. France had magnificent defence, with libero Jenia Grebennikov and used almost all counter attacks. After spike made by Antonin Rouzier, Poland was far from their opponent (15-8, losing 7 points in a row). Poles led to 21-17, but “Les bleus” controlled game and won it 3-1. Last point was serve mistake made by Kurek (25-20).
Team Stats:
| Actions | Spike points | Spike % | Block | Serve | Rec Exc | Rec Pos | Errors |
| France | 50 | 50% | 9 | 6 | 7% | 59% | 29 |
| Poland | 47 | 50% | 12 | 2 | 4% | 55% | 36 |
Team Leaders:
| Actions | Points | Spike pts | Spike % | Block | Ace | Errors |
| Antonin Rouzier | 16 | 12 | 40% | 2 | 2 | 6 |
| Bartosz Kurek | 20 | 16 | 53% | 3 | 1 | 12 |
SLOVAKIA – TURKEY 3-2 (18-25 16-25 25-20 25-21 19-17)
Line-ups and scores:
Slovakia: Masny (2), Ogurcak (5), Kmet (8), Nemec (6), Chrtiansky (7), Kohut (12), Ondrusek (L) and Patak (14), Zatko (5), Bencz (22), Hruska
Turkey: Kiyak (2), Ayvazoglu (6), Koc (10), Toy (22), Batur (22), Gok (11), Yesilbudak (L) and Kayhan, Yucel (7), Yenipazar
Even though Martin Nemec and Emanuel Kohut were performing well for Slovakia, still Turkey dictated the pace of the game in the opening set. Similarly to yesterday’s game with Poland, Emre Batur was Turkey’s best player and helped by Mustafa Koc he anchored his side to the final 25-18.
Turkey stretched that same pace to the early phases of the second set (6:3) before Chrtiansky changed Masny and Nemec with Juraj Zatko and Milan Bencz. Still Batur was not to stop and after leading by four points at the second technical time-out, Turkey cruised to a provisional 2:0 lead (25-16).
Slovakia found their way into the game in the third set going up 8:5 and keeping that margin also at the second technical time-out. Turkey clawed back and went to the front (18:17) but Slovakia showed great composure to score a series of rallies and with Bencz paving the way for the final 25-20.
Bencz and Batur put up a great fight also in the fourth set where Slovakia claimed a very small margin (17:15); Turkey’s head coach Emanuele Zanini stopped the game as his side was trailing 16:19 but it did not help as Bencz, Zatko and Matej Patak – all not included on Slovakia’s starting six – showed great consistency in their play to call for the tie-break (25-21).
A neck-to-neck race unfolded there with Slovakia and Turkey fighting for every single rally; Kohut blocked Metin Toy for the 13:12 but Turkey survived to three match balls for their opponents; however Batur missed on a couple of attacks and he eventually paved the way with gold for Slovakia that finished it off at 19-17.
Press Conference:
“Of course we are happy with this victory because this keeps alive our hopes to make it to the next round” said Slovakia captain Michal Masny. “After losing two sets we came back and the substitutions asked by our coach completely changed the course of the game. We only have to forget what we did tonight, clear up our minds because this is already history and get ready for our last match with Poland, hoping to be good enough to make it through pool play”.
“After leading 2:0 we did lose control of the game. Their substitutions brought extra energy. We are very disappointed but we will be doing our best tomorrow to beat France” said Turkey team captain Ulas Kiyak.
“I have to agree with Ulas; after these changes Slovakia changed the course of the game and we could not answer to this. Bencz was really outstanding today” said Turkey mentor Zanini. “Yesterday we had played with glowing hearts against Poland and today some players did not have that much energy left. I tried some substitutions too but it was all in vain. One single ball decided the winner of this fixture and even though we were better in serve and attack, we ended up losing the game”.
“It was a very tough game for both coaches” Slovakia mentor Stefan Chrtiansky added. “We started out very bad and did not perform well in any element of the game. Milan Bencz was the one who brought us to this victory. I decided to take some risks as young players joined the game but in the end it was a great move. I am very proud of my team because they did their best today”.
Team Stats:
| Actions | Spike points | Spike % | Block | Serve | Rec Exc | Rec Pos | Errors |
| Slovakia | 61 | 47% | 17 | 3 | 5% | 62% | 29 |
| Turkey | 69 | 50% | 9 | 2 | 6% | 63% | 25 |
Team Leaders:
| Actions | Points | Spike pts | Spike % | Block | Ace | Errors |
| Milan Bencz | 22 | 22 | 69% | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Metin Toy | 22 | 19 | 43% | 2 | 1 | 6 |
Description and press conference: CEV
