Lupka

Russia goes to Copenhagen after beating France in quarterfinal

25 September 2013

Brilliant Earvin Ngapeth and outstanding Julien Lyneel were not enough for France to stop Russia in quarterfinal. Andrey Voronkov’s team won 3-1 (25-17, 17-25, 25-22, 25-21) and made it to the final with strong game in block and two aces in Russian roster – Sergey Pavlov and Dmitry Musersky.
Brilliant Earvin Ngapeth and outstanding Julien Lyneel were not enough for France to stop Russia in quarterfinal. Andrey Voronkov’s team won 3-1 (25-17, 17-25, 25-22, 25-21) and made it to the final with strong game in block and two aces in Russian roster – Sergey Pavlov and Dmitry Musersky. 
It was definitely great beginning of Russia team, which played mostly with very strong block. However, France kept in touch with them at the start, but finally was visibly powerless than rival. With some kills on block, Russia was unstoppable in first part. With far much better reception it was easy to beat France, especially with Nikolay Pavlov’s spikes, 25-17.
On the start of second part, Julien Lyneel served well and France set a successful block on Russian players.  However, it was all. Alexey Spiridonov continued his great performance, scored again. Russia had some problems with Earvin Ngapeth serves, so they couldn’t manage in attack. That was the main reason why Laurent Tilles team leaded on first TTO 8-6. After Lyneel failed out spike, Ngapeth attacked well on amazingly speed and France felt their chance to fight in this match. Andrey Voronkov asked for a time out when outstanding game of France reflected in 13-8 score, but it did not helped his team to come back to this mach again. Lyneel was however the one, who played amazingly on serve and block, being still the best on the court likewise Ngapeth and those two guys let the France to cruise into spectacular victory 25-17.
In third set Pavlov came back to the game with both strong and also smart actions, which allowed them to take an advantage, but France stayed close for 6-7 and later 13-14. Antonin Rouzier took the weight of the game for his arms and with Pavlov’s error, the score went to 15-15. It was a gap in block each time when Russia tried to attack on the left side of the net, though, it was Pavlov who was excellent no matter where they had to spike. After stopping Rouzier by triple-block with Musersky, France evidently lost their spirit, but did not stop to fight for each point. With failed attack of Ngapeth, France lost 22-25. 
In fourth part, Mory Sidibe replaced Rouzier in starting “six” and by his block-out spiked France get into the 6-1 score very quickly. But it was not enough for Russia – after Voronkov’s time out, they started to improve their game and with great patch of Musersky’s served they equaled for 7-7. Then Russia held tight to France with point for point game till 11-11, when Mustersky again took 12th point for his team. After single-block of that 218cm tall player on Ngapeth, Russia had 2 points more than rival (14-12). Neck-to-neck game was continued, but finally Russia jumped for 21-18 and then to 25-21.
Benjamin Toniutti: It is always hard to get off the competition at this moment. Especially that we get well through the group stage. We played good match today, but we faced with the best team in the world. I am proud of my team and staff as we have very young roster, but we competed well. I think we have bright future. 
Sergey Makarov: We are obviously happy with today’s victory after crazy clash with France. Today it turned out that we were better. France performed well in defence, which made us some problems, but we managed. Their players are very young and hugely talented and I think they will be very tough opponent in nearest future. Well, now our goal for a couple of days is to relax and prepare ourselves to semi-finals.
Laurent Tillie: We are sad, because we wanted to continue fulfilling our dream to play next matches in this tournament. We tried to get well with our defence, maybe caused some problems for Russia with our serve, but we eventually did both only in one set. However, each time we fought till the last point and I hope this match will bring some experience for my players and who knows, maybe next time we will beat Russia.
Andrey Voronkov: Honestly, we realized that young players from France would set us a high target – we concluded it with some previous matches. That’s why we were ready for this. My goal number one was to break the great defence of France and when we did it, we started to improve this element in our team.

Brilliant Earvin Ngapeth and outstanding Julien Lyneel were not enough for France to stop Russia in quarterfinal. Andrey Voronkov’s team won 3-1 (25-17, 17-25, 25-22, 25-21) and made it to the final with strong game in block and two aces in Russian roster – Sergey Pavlov and Dmitry Musersky. 

It was definitely great beginning of Russia team, which played mostly with very strong block. However, France kept in touch with them at the start, but finally was visibly powerless than rival. With some kills on block, Russia was unstoppable in first part. With far much better reception it was easy to beat France, especially with Nikolay Pavlov’s spikes, 25-17.

On the start of second part, Julien Lyneel served well and France set a successful block on Russian players.  However, it was all. Alexey Spiridonov continued his great performance, scored again. Russia had some problems with Earvin Ngapeth serves, so they couldn’t manage in attack. That was the main reason why Laurent Tilles team leaded on first TTO 8-6. After Lyneel failed out spike, Ngapeth attacked well on amazingly speed and France felt their chance to fight in this match. Andrey Voronkov asked for a time out when outstanding game of France reflected in 13-8 score, but it did not helped his team to come back to this mach again. Lyneel was however the one, who played amazingly on serve and block, being still the best on the court likewise Ngapeth and those two guys let the France to cruise into spectacular victory 25-17.

In third set Pavlov came back to the game with both strong and also smart actions, which allowed them to take an advantage, but France stayed close for 6-7 and later 13-14. Antonin Rouzier took the weight of the game for his arms and with Pavlov’s error, the score went to 15-15. It was a gap in block each time when Russia tried to attack on the left side of the net, though, it was Pavlov who was excellent no matter where they had to spike. After stopping Rouzier by triple-block with Musersky, France evidently lost their spirit, but did not stop to fight for each point. With failed attack of Ngapeth, France lost 22-25. 

In fourth part, Mory Sidibe replaced Rouzier in starting “six” and by his block-out spiked France get into the 6-1 score very quickly. But it was not enough for Russia – after Voronkov’s time out, they started to improve their game and with great patch of Musersky’s served they equaled for 7-7. Then Russia held tight to France with point for point game till 11-11, when Mustersky again took 12th point for his team. After single-block of that 218cm tall player on Ngapeth, Russia had 2 points more than rival (14-12). Neck-to-neck game was continued, but finally Russia jumped for 21-18 and then to 25-21.

Benjamin Toniutti: It is always hard to get off the competition at this moment. Especially that we get well through the group stage. We played good match today, but we faced with the best team in the world. I am proud of my team and staff as we have very young roster, but we competed well. I think we have bright future. 

Sergey Makarov: We are obviously happy with today’s victory after crazy clash with France. Today it turned out that we were better. France performed well in defence, which made us some problems, but we managed. Their players are very young and hugely talented and I think they will be very tough opponent in nearest future. Well, now our goal for a couple of days is to relax and prepare ourselves to semi-finals.

Laurent Tillie: We are sad, because we wanted to continue fulfilling our dream to play next matches in this tournament. We tried to get well with our defence, maybe caused some problems for Russia with our serve, but we eventually did both only in one set. However, each time we fought till the last point and I hope this match will bring some experience for my players and who knows, maybe next time we will beat Russia.

Andrey Voronkov: Honestly, we realized that young players from France would set us a high target – we concluded it with some previous matches. That’s why we were ready for this. My goal number one was to break the great defence of France and when we did it, we started to improve this element in our team.

© Polish Volleyball Federation, 2017