Surprising win over Russia opens the tournament for Germany

On Friday Russia lost to Germany in three sets (20-25, 23-25 and 19-25) in the opening match of Pool D of the 2013 CEV VELUX Volleyball European Championship – Men, Final Round in the multipurpose venue 'Hala Sportowo-Widowiskowa Gdynia'.

 On Friday Russia lost to Germany in three sets (20-25, 23-25 and 19-25) in the opening match of Pool D of the 2013 CEV VELUX Volleyball European Championship – Men, Final Round in the multipurpose venue 'Hala Sportowo-Widowiskowa Gdynia'. 

György Grozer of Germany topped all scorers with an impressive number of 21 points, followed by Russia's Dmitry Muserskiy (points) 

Germany's captain, Jochen Schöps was not in the match roster, as he is still struggling with injured abdominal muscle. 

The first set started very well for the Germans, as they quickly jumped ahead to five-point lead at the first TTO. The Russians managed to level the score at 13-13, thanks to powerful serves and spikes. Nevertheless, the Germans took control once again and with some impressive blocks and strong hits they proved their domination in the set picking it up 25-20. 

In set 2 the play stayed on a point-by-point basis from the beginning, as the Russians were determined to tie the overall score. The game remained on a very high level, both teams showed fenomenal defence and spikes, but it were the Germans who were the ones to – once more - take the lead (16-13 at the second TTO). Russia's head coach Andrey Voronkov even changed liberos (Artem Ermakov replaced Alexey Verbov), but it did not make difference, as the Germans stayed concentrated and took the set 25-23, setting the overall score at 2-0. 

In the third set Germany scored six unanswered point after Russia's initial leading 3-1 and went to the first TTO with a four-point advantage. They stayed ahead throughout the set (16-11 at the secon TTO) and romped into victory 25-19 and 3-0 in the entire match. 

Germany's captain Simon Tischer said during the press conference: “We are happy about the result, but I am not that surprised that we won. It is a result of our hard work, our great play in block-defence.” 

Head coach of Russia, Andrey Voronkov was definitely in a worse mood. 

“I don't want to mention anybody in particular – the entire team played very badly,” the coach said after the match. 

On Saturday Germany will play against Bulgaria (3pm local time), while Russia will face Czech Republic (6pm local time).