"We believed in the victory from the beginning of the match" - said coach Velasco after the 3-2 win over France
Łódź, Poland, June 25, 2016 – The FIVB Volleyball World League 2016 match between Argentina and France was a thrilling and long battle endingd with Argentina's victory 3-2 (19-25, 25-21, 25-23, 25-27, 15-13). Coaches and team captains agreed that it was a very close match.
Julio Velasco, coach of Argentina: It was a very difficult match against one of the strongest teams in the world. This win is really important for us, as we had lost last few matches. Today we played well and believed in victory from the beginning of the match. Tomorrow we expect another hard game against the Russian team.
Laurent Tillie, coach of France: It was a good fight. We were aware that Argentina play well, especially on passing and quick ball in the middle. We were not able to control them and we made too many mistakes. We weren’t good enough in spike and we played without block. We had only 7 blocks in this match. We lost this match, but we fought till the end. Now we need to rest and try to show our best against Poland, but it will be a tough match.
Luciano de Cecco, captain of Argentina: This victory is really important for us, we beat team France - last year’s World League champions. It’s especially significant for our mentality to go on the court more enthusiastic for next games, the next round of World League. We played easy today, not nervous and at the same time stronger and more aggressive than in the previous matches.
In this World League season we cannot play in our strongest squad, we have some new teammates, who need to get experience. Still we’re waiting for Facundo to recover from his shoulder injury. We just go day by day, and I hope tomorrow against Russia we can play at the same level as today and get the second victory.
Benjamin Toniutti, captain of France: It was a very close match. Argentina play good volleyball and we were aware of that. Playing against them is very hard, because they have good defence and good service which is very tactical. From our side, I think we made too many mistakes in this match.