The latest report from the CEV, on Day two of the European Pre- Qualification Tournaments

30.11.2007

High tension in Catania and Evora!

Olympic Games 2008 - European Qualification Tournaments

Luxembourg, 30^th November 2007. The second day of the three pre-qualification tournaments in Hungary , Portugal and Italy, clearly demonstrated the importance for each team to ensure their place in the semi-finals on Saturday.

In Hungary, the world vice-champion Polish team started the pre-qualification with an easy win against Denmark. The Polish’s built and superiority gave no chance to the Danish and they secured their first match in Pool B 3-0 (25-21, 25-19, 25-19).

The Hungarian national team also made its debut with a victory in Szombathely. Against the enthusiastic and conscientious Estonian national team,, the Baltic guard played a confident volleyball. Starting with 6-1 in the first set, they closed it with a 25-19 score. Estonia tried in vain to come back in the match after losing also the second set 22-25, but Nagy Péter showed his best performance and the host team won 3-0.

In Portugal, after an exceptional victory from Sweden, which beat Slovakia in a thriller match on the first day in Evora 3:2 (28-26, 22-25, 30-28, 22-25, 16-14), the Northern team had to face France. The Swedish battled as equals against Philippe Blain’s team, fighting for each point as if it were the last. Marcus Nilsson was one of the mentors of the Nordic resistance, and allowed his team to keep an open balance in the first set, eventually won by France 25-23.  READ FULL REPORT

Matches to be played today:

Szombathely (HUN)

17:30 BEL vs POL
20:00 FIN vs HUN

Evora (POR)

15:00 SLO vs FRA
18:30 POR vs GER

Catania (ITA)

17:30 ROU vs GRE
20:00 MNE vs CRO

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