Slovakia team celebrates after beating Portugal in five-setter
Izmir, Turkey, June 19, 2016 - Slovakia's Tomas Krisko scored 21 points contributing to his team's victory over Portugal 3-2 (18-25, 21-25, 25-21, 25-23, 19-17) in the Pool B2 FIVB World League encounter.
Slovakia's Tomas Krisko scored 21 points his team recovered afeter two lost sets to see of Portugal Korea 3-2 (18-25, 21-25, 25-21, 25-23, 19-17) in the Pool B2 FIVB World League encounter.
The next best scorer for Slovakia was Stefan Chrtiansky with 20 points, while Portugal's Alexandre Ferreira registered match-high 24 points.
This was the first ever meeting between these nations in any official competition.
Set one was a thight affair in early stages, but then Portugal established a slighlty lead which they managed to keep until the end securing the victory 25-18.
Portugal started stron into the second set, racing off to a 8-4 lead at the first technical timeout. After the brake Slovakia responded well and took a narrow lead 17-16 after scoring 3 points in a row. Portugalia however found their mood in the last stage and took the set 25-21.
Set three emulated the first set as both teams were trading points. This time it was Slovakia who keep their nerves to finish it off at 25-23.
Fourth set was a tight affair only until the first technical timeout as Slovakia took the lead 12-8. Portugal desperatly wanted to avoid the tie-break and got within one only point gap at 20-19, but Slovakia kept the distance to close out the set at 25-23.
The tiebreaker was a real thriller as Portugal was 12-9 up and had later two match points. But Slovakia tied it up and took the set 19-17.