After the ECH’s drawing: a severe group in Gdynia

- The group is definitely severe, but we should not judge who will promote to further phase of the tournament before the matches end. There is always a chance for everyone – says the Czech Republic national team libero player, Martin Kryštof. In accordance to the opinion of the specialists from this country the team of Dutch coach, Stewart Bernard ‘could not get worse’.

As a result of the drawing of lots performed on Monday in Copenhagen concerning composition of groups of the 2013 Senior Men’s European Championships, Czech Republic is in group D with Russia, Bulgaria and Germany. – We will face the Olympic champion from London as well as the semifinalist and the quarterfinalist of the tournament. The group is very strong and similar to the one we used to have at the 2009 European Championships when we had to play against Italy, Serbia and Bulgaria – says captain of the Czech national team, Ondrej Hudecek. Furthermore, in his opinion all three teams – Russia, Bulgaria and Germany- remain candidates to medals.  

Hudecek and Kryštof in their speeches do not even consider possibility to defeat Russia. - Sborna is absolutely top world four – says Martin Kryštof. – At the 2011 European Championships we hosted the event and played in one group with Russia, Estonia and Portugal. We reached the playoff phase and lost. Maybe next year’s championships will be lucky for us. One of our rivals – Germany – has lately made big improvement. However, I see our biggest potential in the match against this team. Bulgaria heads towards world top too, but during the World Championships 2010 in Italy we managed to win – reminds Czech Libero player.

Ryszard Bosek says in his opinion ‘courts in Denmark and Poland will face a very interesting tournament. – From groups of other continents the top ranking of men’s volleyball includes only Brazil and USA. The foundations of this sport is Europe. High emotions will not be missing at the tournament. Speaking of the drawing Poland, we should not analyze our group but who will play with whom in the final. Our national team has a strong, stable position at the international arena – finished Ryszard Bosek.

The composition of the ECH’s groups (20^th -29^th of September 2013)
Group A (Odense): Denmark, Italy, Belarus, Greece/Belgium
Group B (Gdańsk): Poland, Slovakia, France, Turkey/Latvia
Group C (Herning): Finland, Serbia, the Netherland, Croatia/Slovakia
Group D (Gdynia): Russia, Bulgaria, Germany, Czech Republic

winners of particular groups will promote to the quarterfinal. Teams ranked 2^nd and 3^rd will fight in the playoffs for qualification to the top eight of the championships.