CEV.lu, fot. CEV.lu, 24 September 2017

#EuroVolleyW 2017: Poland lose to powerfull hosts

Azerbaijan’s spectacular run at the historic women’s EuroVolley they are co-hosting together with Georgia continued on Sunday as the hosts rallied to a comprehensive 3-0 victory (25-14, 25-21, 25-23) over Poland to cement their leadership in Pool A – where they still have to contest their last match with Germany. The President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Mr Ilham Aliyev, paid a second visit to the National Gymnastics Arena and was among the many fans to celebrate yet another win for the home side – who have embarked on a mission to improve on their best #EuroVolleyW result to date, i.e. the fourth place they achieved back in 2005 in Croatia. 

Azerbaijan vs. Poland 3-0 (25-14, 25-21, 25-23) 

Azerbaijan had enjoyed the privilege of a short break following their successful debut on Friday late afternoon where they made up for a slow start to rout Hungary in three sets – whereas Poland had played nine sets in their previous two matches with Germany and Hungary, these resulting in two victories for the White-and-Reds. Playing under the eyes of State President Ilham Aliyev, who on Sunday paid a second visit to the 2017 women’s EuroVolley, Azerbaijan stormed to a thunderous 25-14 win in the opening set of their matchup with Poland, much to the delight of an almost sell-out crowd. 

The second set was a much different story with Poland fighting for every point and keeping the score close until the second technical timeout (16-14). At this stage, Azerbaijan found more consistency in their game, producing an impressive run (22-16) with Polina Rahimova and Natalya Mammadova being their main assets. Poland put up a fight (23-20) but Rahimova secured four set points for the home side – and she was responsible for sealing Azerbaijan’s 25-21 win to double the hosts’ lead in the match. 

In a sort of ‘crescendo’, the match grew in intensity and quality in the third set – where Poland edged ahead a few times and had a little advantage towards the end (23-21) before Azerbaijan’s comeback sparked much enthusiasm among the crowd in attendance. The hosts scored four points in a row and the match eventually ended in a 3-0 victory for the home side – the second such score line in as many matches as they had produced the same result in their opening game with Hungary on Friday. 

Quotes 

Valeriya Mammadova, libero of Azerbaijan: “It is a great start for us – with two wins in two matches. Poland have a very strong team but we celebrated a victory in three sets. The third set was very difficult for us, but towards the end, we eventually played without making mistakes. Now our team is entirely focussed on the last match of the group stage against Germany.” 

Polina Rahimova, opposite of Azerbaijan: “We played such an emotional match. Sometimes I felt like our team was flying on the court. The third set was much closer, but we continued to fight and eventually celebrated a well-deserved victory. Poland have a good block and our team played clean in defence and we fought for our chances as much as we could in attack too.” 

Martyna Grajber, player of Poland: “We did not play our game at all in those first two sets. Malwina [Smarzek] was hauling us with her spiking, but we could not join her. When each one of us combined their effort in set three, the result was much closer. If the referee’s last decision had gone the other way, it could have been a much different game, as pressure was visibly mounting on Azerbaijan’s players. It has also been the first time for us to face a team whose outside spikers are two meters tall. You know what to do in theory, but without meeting this kind of opposition on a regular basis, it is very difficult. However, that third set showed that it was doable.” 

Jacek Nawrocki, coach of Poland: “I think that we did not start that bad – up until the first time-out it did not look bad at all, but later on we couldn’t stop Rahimova nor Mammadova, while Poznyak was also doing a good job. With an opponent like that, you have to take a lot more risks with the serve and get a little “crazy” with your attack. Our girls do not often face the kind of serve we saw in the second set, when a jump-served ball was flying at 100km/h or faster. Our chance came in the third set but unfortunately, we lacked that bit of that “crazy” I was talking about.” 

Match details:

http://www.cev.lu/Competition-Area/MatchStatistics.aspx?ID=29701

© Polish Volleyball Federation, 2017