Brazil is only one step from regaining the World League crown
Kraków, Poland, July 16, 2016 – Brazil’s amazing pursuit in fourth set against France gave them a chance to get back on the World League’s throne after six years of waiting.
Bernardo Rezende, coach of Brazil: It’s always a great challenge to play against Tillie’s France. Since three years they are showing a fantastic level. They have fantastic serve and talented players, but its not just that. Their system, their defence is amazing, we try to learn from them. I’m proud of my team, of how they reacted on the pressure. It’s the most important thing we played today. It was 3-1, but we spent so much energy, as if we have played a long tie-breaker. Now we need to rest and prepare for the final against Serbia.
Laurent Tillie, coach of France: I think it was an amazing match. We lost our self-control in the first set. We started serving very well when Julien Lyneel entered the court and it was important moment for us. We lost because Brazil played better in tough moment and details made the difference. We need to be focused in each aspect – block, defence, position, every set. We received a very good lesson from Brazil. I am very proud of my team, tomorrow we will play against Italy for the medal.
Bruno Rezende, captain of Brazil: I think it was a really great match, amazing for the fans. We played against one of the strongest team in the world. It’s not easy to play against a team that puts a lot of pressure – they serve very strong. We preserved our intelligence and our concentration even when we were losing. I think in this we showed our strength and quality of our team. Tomorrow it will be another hard match and we need to play like we did tonight.
Antonin Rouzier, France: It was a difficult match today, but the stronger team won. We were not ready to play this kind of match. Brazil played better.
Wallace de Souza, Brazil: I think that today service and block were the key factors which allowed us to win this match. In fourth set we didn’t lower our heads though we were six points behind France. Eder who substituted Maurico Souza due to his back injury went on the service line and made a difference. He was just phenomenal, he served 10 amazing balls in a row and we managed to turn around this set and close the match in four sets.