Belgrade, Serbia, 23 June 2016 - Serbia's Srecko Lisinac leads the way with 18 points as the European heavyweights come from behind to beat Brazil 3-1 (19-25, 25-15, 25-21, 25-22) in Pool F Group 1 of the World League, including an astonishing 20 points from the service line.
It was a record haul in terms of aces scored by one team in a match in the 2016 World League while Serbia were also helped by Aleksandar Atanasijevic's 16 points. Brazil's Ricardo Lucarelli led the South American's points total with 18, though it wasn't enough to get his team off to a good start.
Both sides began the game cautiously, exchanging points whilst trying to work each other out, but it was the South American's that silenced the home crowd, edging in front, to secure a 1-0 set lead with a 25-19 win, getting off to a perfect start against their hosts.
Serbia stormed out of the blocks in the second set to take an early lead as the Brazilian side began slowly despite Lucarelli continuing his impressive spiking. Both Lisinac and Atanasijevic however, were teaming to a high quality standard as they stormed away to level the tie at 1-1 with a 25-15 win.
The home side continued their impressive performance into the third set before Brazil began to click once again on the court to keep on the Serbian coat tails. Both sides had chances to edge in front but again it was the inspired Serbian side that had the last laugh with a 25-21 set win to take a 2-1 lead.
Knowing they needed to fight back early to take the game to a deciding set, Brazil were first out of the blocks in the fourth set and took an early lead but, this time it was Serbia on the coat tails as Lisinac, kept his side within reach. That enabled to European side to grind down the deficit and edge in front to seal a 3-1 victory with a 25-22 fourth set win.