Ľubor Halanda: Poles have shown it once again

Poles have once again shown how they love and respect volleyball – said Ľubor Halanda, President of Slovak Volleyball Federation (SVF) after the Drawing of Lots ceremony for EUROVOLLEY POLAND 2017 in Krakow. – In their country this sport can compare in popularity to football. The DoL ceremony took place in elegant surroundings of magnificent culture.

Slovakia will play its Pool B matches in Szczecin against Italy, Germany and Czech Republic. This their sixth time to qualify to the Final Round and ninth time to fight for medals in the tournament. In 2011 they finished 5^th – their best result in European Championship so far. At the last continental championship in Bulgaria and Italy Slovakia finished the Preliminary Round behind Serbia, Russia and Finland and ended 14^th in the final ranking.

- We got a pool with very strong opponents, but it’s hard to pick easy rivals at the European Championship – said the leader of Slovak Volleyball. – We have some difficult games ahead of us, but we want to advance to the next round. This will be our goal.

Emanuel Kohút, a player of Cerrad Czarni Radom, is the captain of Slovakia national team. – It’s a tough group, but there are no easy ones in the European Championship – he commented. Italy and Germany are among the top teams of the continent. Facing Italy will be particularly meaningful for me. I played in Serie A for a long time and I can’t wait to face this opponent. We had a tough pool in 2011 and we still finished fifth. I believe that it will be similar in Poland.

Another player of Slovak national team - Branislav Skladaný (Noliko Maaseik) calmly accepted the DoL results. He underlines his realistic approach: - We will fight our brothers to leave the group. Qualifying to EUROVOLLEY POLAND 2017 was a success and advancing to the next round will be a bonus – said Skladaný.

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